The medtech giant today announced a multi-year agreement with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to help intensivists virtually connect with ICU patients across eight hospitals.
“Through the Virtual ICU, we can supplement the local expertise in a variety of ways and durations — from a single shift to several a week — bringing much-needed relief and support to the clinicians on the ground,” said Joe Ness, OHSU Healthcare’s SVP and COO.
“The VICU allows us to execute our vision of increasing the level of care in community hospitals, allowing patients across the state of Oregon to receive the care they need closer to home while reducing unnecessary transfers and optimizing ICU capacity in the area,” Ness said.
GE Healthcare’s “Mural Virtual Care Solution” — which is available to health systems in the in the United States, Canada, China, Korea, UAE and Saudi Arabia — is supporting the VICU at OHSU. Mural integrates data from multiple systems and devices to digitize the hospital’s best practices and clinical protocols. The result is a comprehensive, real-time view of patient status that is scalable across a selected care area, hospital or entire health system.
“I can fully focus on the patient — who may be physically hundreds of miles away — in real-time, by watching vital signs, lab values, waveforms and other parameters,” said Dr. Marshall Lee, an OHSU associate professor TeleICU medical director. “And by enabling audio and visual support in the patient room, I can virtually visit and collaborate with the local, bedside team.”
Hospitals will also be able to improve operations through analysis of data such as length of stay and average ventilation days per patient that will come out of the VICU.
“We are pleased to offer this flexible platform that delivers data from devices and systems regardless of manufacturer, going beyond the capabilities of the traditional tele-ICU,” said Tom Westrick, president and CEO of Life Care Solutions at GE Healthcare.
