Tele ICU debuted at Alton Memorial in late 2019. The Tele ICU physician and nursing team is partnering with ICU bedside staff to improve patient outcomes and identify ways to standardize critical care delivery.

The service provides full interface of patient data from Epic, bedside monitors and hardware in every patient room to allow audio/visual connection at a moment’s notice. “Our focus is on integrating the Tele ICU with the bedside ICU care to create a high-performing critical care delivery network for BJC and the region,” says Walter Boyle, MD, Washington University School of Medicine professor of anesthesiology and surgery, an original architect of the Tele ICU program and executive medical director. “Tele ICU is not intended to replace bedside care, but rather to support it. It provides an additional layer of safety and oversight, much like an air traffic controller supports a pilot flying a plane.”

According to data gathered both before and since the original Tele ICU launch at BJC in 2016, this extra layer of coverage continues to improve patient outcomes. As an example, in just six months, the mortality rate in a patient population identified to have higher mortality than expected dropped a whopping 33 percent — down to the expected level of mortality — since Tele ICU coverage was added. Another example is adherence to ICU best practices intended to prevent complications. This has improved in units with Tele ICU coverage, which has led to a drop in complications in these units.

The Tele ICU nurses and physicians monitor patients remotely, or virtually, 24/7, using clinical software that provides real-time access to all electronic medical record data, including data from the bedside monitoring devices, and lab test results. This data also is used to provide automated multi-organ acuity scores and trends that enable the Tele ICU staff to focus on the sicker patients and quickly detect negative trends.

While not physically present in the patient’s room, Tele ICU staff can be virtually present using high-resolution tilt and zoom cameras that see every angle around the room whenever needed, upon request or if a potentially important issue is detected.

Each room also has a monitor mounted on the wall for face-to-face conversations between the bedside caregivers and the Tele ICU team. The ICU bedside staff can push a button requesting the Tele ICU staff at any time. Once the button is pushed, the Tele ICU staff are notified of the request and respond immediately.

All Tele ICU nurses must have at least five years of ICU experience and critical care nurse certification. Critical care physicians, who also provide 24/7 coverage, rely heavily on the technology and nurses’ ability to detect early change and triage quickly.

AMH nurses, left to right, Cathy Grant, Kari Fritz, Becky Paul and Amy Jarrett, view the EICU monitor in one of the ICU rooms.