For modern hospitals, an adequately staffed ICU is crucial for delivering high-acuity care when every minute matters. Access TeleCare’s telePulmonary and critical care programs enable hospitals of any size to staff ICUs with critical care specialists who can manage and treat clinically complex patients as soon as they need care.
Access TeleCare’s telePulmonary & Critical Care program/teleICU Ensures That Hospitals Can:
- Improve case mix index: By empowering hospitals to avoid having to transfer acutely ill patients and care for them locally, Access TeleCare also helps increase their case mix index (CMI). One rural hospital partner, for example, saw a 19 percent increase in its CMI one year after deploying a teleICU program with Access TeleCare. Another saw a 50 percent increase.
- Decrease ICU lengths of stay: With a teleICU program, hospitals have 24/7 specialty coverage available for consultation and monitoring. Data from one study found ICU length of stay decreased from 2.7 days to 2.2 days with teleICU coverage, and another study reported a decrease from 4.06 ICU days to 3.77 days.
- Improve retention of high acuity patients: With the ability to care for the sickest of patients, hospitals no longer have to immediately transfer high-acuity patients to facilities providing a higher level of care. Access TeleCare’s teleICU program provides full coverage and support for on-site clinicians to appropriately and safely manage patients needing intensive care.
- Reduce transfers to other facilities: During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Palo Pinto General Hospital in rural Texas not only reduced its transfers of acutely ill patients, it was also able to serve as a resource for other rural hospitals looking for hospitals to which to transfer their patients. Having Access TeleCare’s telePulmonary and Critical Care program reduced the hospital’s ED transfer by 36 percent and by more than 40 percent for pulmonary patients specifically.
- Increase ICU average daily census: A teleICU program gives hospitals 24/7 critical care specialist coverage and team support for on-site nurses, respiratory therapists, and other clinicians. The result is the increased ability to retain more patients needing an ICU level of care at their local hospital.
- Increase the hospital’s ability to support complex surgical cases: Having a fully staffed teleICU supports hospitals in providing local surgeries. With post-surgical, on-site intensive care available, hospitals can provide both the surgery and the post-operative care.
- Reduce the number of health care-acquired infections: Increased length of stay is associated with increased risk of infection. Hospitals with teleICU programs have 24/7 coverage from critical care specialists who are deploying evidence-based practices that both reduce length of stay and also the risk of health care-acquired infections.
- Meet patient expectations for even the most advanced care: Patients today expect hospitals, no matter their size or location, to meet their specialty care needs. Telemedicine is the most cost-effective and efficient means of providing specialty care when in-person specialists are unavailable or are cost prohibitive to recruit and retain.
With Access TeleCare, hospitals of any size can maintain comprehensive ICU care and deliver real results for critically ill patients.
Discover how an Access TeleCare telePulmonary and critical care program can transform how your hospital delivers intensive care. Contact us to learn more.
