Sutter Health Expands e-ICU Program
Sutter Health is expanding a program to remotely monitor its intensive care unit patients from off-site locations to its Sutter Davis and Auburn Faith hospitals by this fall, with future plans to install the system in its Sutter Roseville facility, the Sacramento Business Journal reports. Doctors at the off-site "e-ICU" monitor patients, check a patient's medical history and order treatment changes. Local physician group Pulmonary Medicine Associates staffs Sutter's e-ICU around the clock, with doctors rotating the night shifts. Sutter is spending $30 million on its eICU program; eventually three off-site facilities will monitor all of Sutter's 432 intensive-care beds. "This challenges the old process and really improves patient care," Sutter CEO Van Johnson said, adding, "This stuff makes sense. It will be a monumental day when all of Sutter Health is linked to this." About 13% of intensive-care patients currently receive 24-hour care, the Business Journal reports. The health system implemented the e-ICU at its Sutter General and Sutter Memorial hospitals in January and June, respectively (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 8/1).
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