"Powerful Impact": e-Intensive Care Unit Drives Drop In Hospital Mortality

Advocate Health Care (Advocate) officials said the cutting-edge technology features around-the-clock, real-time audio and video monitoring of ICU patients at different hospitals, all from one central command center, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.

The eICUŽ Care program at Advocate is more than just monitoring. In conjunction with sophisticated decision-support software, board-certified critical care specialists and trained ICU nurses are able to consult with hospital staff and make real-time clinical decisions, the health system said. Advocate is one of just four hospital systems around the country now using the state-of-the-art eICUŽ technology that is likened by some to an air traffic control center.

"These preliminary results are very exciting," said Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate. "We believed all along that this significant investment in clinical technology would have a big impact on improving clinical outcomes for our sickest patients, but we never expected to see results like these within the first months of the program."

Skogsbergh said that Advocate recognizes "that other variables influence data like this, but we do believe that the eICUŽ Care program has had a powerful impact on the numbers in such a short period of time."

The overall baseline mortality percent in Lutheran General's ICUs was 9.7 percent (data from calendar year 2002). The five-month average for the eICUŽ Care program at Lutheran General was 8.6 percent, Advocate said.

Good Shepherd's early result is based on an overall baseline mortality percent of 8.2 percent and a four-month average of 7.2 percent.

Nearly 1,200 patients have been treated under the Advocate eICUŽ Care program's watchful eyes since the program began.

"We're now seeing that the eICU technology is enhancing the already high quality of care provided at Advocate hospitals, while also helping to save lives," said Skogsbergh. "Over time, we continue to expect that the eICUŽ Care program will help us to achieve significant reductions in complications and mortality. This technology provides significant support for our critical care nurses, and an additional layer of safety that is readily evident to patients and their families."

As the preliminary findings of more lives being saved were made known, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago completed its initial rollout of 14 ICU beds into the eICUŽ Care program, bringing the Advocate system total to 90.

Address: Advocate Health Care, 2025 Windsor Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523; (630) 572-9393, www.advocatehealth.com.