Access TeleCare TeleICU: Transforming Critical Care with Virtual ICU Coverage

Access TeleCare teleIntensivists work with your local clinical team to create a care plan for any critically-ill patient in your hospital. We provide consistent and rapid response access to board-certified critical care specialists who focus on evidence-based, best-practice-driven care.

Overview of teleICU Services and Solutions

Critical Care On-Demand

Our teleIntensivists provide on-demand critical care expertise and support at the point of care anywhere in the health system. The Access TeleCare team is engaged clinically within minutes of the call to evaluate the status and needs of the patient, just as any ICU would manage their patient population.

  • Complete 24/7 coverage by a board-certified intensivist
  • Enhanced clinical decision support
  • Accessible anywhere: ICU, ED, step-down, med/surg and post-acute settings
  • Experienced in vent management and treating ARDS
  • Support for admission, transfer and step-down decisions

Proactive Patient Assessments

Our Access TeleCare Intensivists use Safety Management and Recommended Triage (SMARTRounds®) to conduct scheduled, structured, collaborative interactions with the entire critical care clinical team at the beginning of each shift.

  • Multi-disciplinary rounds
  • Assess patient status and discuss changes in acuity
  • Proactive identification of preventable complications
  • Discuss and adjust the plan of care as needed
  • Establish shared goals
  • Identify patients eligible for step-down

TeleICU Platform

For organizations that have sufficient intensivist coverage, but want a virtual care option or eICU, our telemedicine platform, Telemed IQ, is available, with or without our tele critical care providers. Our flexible, scalable, and proven enterprise telemedicine platform will help you build your own teleICU program rapidly and sustainably. Any video conferencing solution can help you see patients, but our platform provides the ability to track metrics such as average length of stay, ventilator days, response times, and patients eligible for step-down, as well as let you benchmark your performance among your peer hospitals and nationwide.

How does Access TeleCare teleICU work ?

Our teleICU solution is comprehensive. We offer 24/7 or 12/7 on-demand access to an Access TeleCare intensivist, as well as daily, scheduled patient assessments coordinated with your ICU staff.  Our intensivists can help with ICU management, including transfer decision support. We collaborate with your local clinical team to develop care plans and perform daily assessments through proactive, structured interactions. By incorporating SMARTRounds® into our teleICU service, we enable ICU teams to proactively improve patient care.

Emergent Attention​

  • The ICU nurse speaks to the teleIntensivist on the phone within five (5) minutes for critically ill patients and arranges for physician to get on video​

Urgent/Routine Attention​

  • Physician notified of the patient status and need for consult within ten (10) minutes​
  • Patient seen in a clinically-appropriate period of time determined collaboratively with care staff​

Access TeleCare teleICU vs eICU Bunker Model

Traditionally, many teleICU or eICU services have been “bunker models”, where beds are wired at great expense, and a centralized hub monitors patients. As several studies have shown, alarm fatigue is a common challenge with bunker models. With thousands of monitoring alarms going off on a daily basis, less than 1% are actually clinically meaningful. Furthermore, when there is a presumption of 24/7 monitoring, it can encourage complacency.

Our client hospital partners see the remote monitoring approach at odds with local staff preferences for collaboration and maintaining critical care skills, which is why our innovative teleICU service is very different. It is independent of a wired room/bed which means intensivist coverage is not contained to the ICU. Our proactive care management vs reactive monitoring and alarms can lead to better outcomes.

Benefits of teleICU

Improved care for critically ill patients

  • teleIntensivist coverage 24/7/365 provides access to specialists not otherwise locally available
  • Standardized care with structured collaboration with an onsite care team
  • Proactive patient monitoring enables early and rapid intervention and reduced mortality
  • Visibility into the latest protocol-driven best practice

Higher patient and provider satisfaction

  • Reassurance for patients and families of expert ICU care
  • Increase nursing competency and job satisfaction
  • Reduced clinician burnout
  • Support for difficult admission vs. transfer decisions in the ED
  • Improved patient and family experience

Improved quality for your ICU

  • First, and longest-standing telemedicine organization to earn Joint Commission Accreditation (2006)
  • Comprehensive quality management program that supports evidence-based practices, tracks satisfaction levels and encourages continuous improvement of telemedicine services
  • Adherence to clinical guidelines and core measures
  • Helps meet Leapfrog quality standards
  • Reduced readmissions

Increased efficiency of ICU operations

  • Flexibility to scale teleIntensivist services quickly according to current staffing and patient needs
  • Timely ICU discharges and efficient throughput
  • Improved patient flow and capacity management
  • Maximize bed utilization

Reduction in costs

  • Reduction of locum tenens and recruiting costs; improved staff retention
  • Low upfront capital investment – no beds to wire
  • Elimination of unnecessary transfers; keep more complex patients
  • Increase in Case Mix Index (CMI)
  • Reduced ICU Average Length of Stay (ALOS)
  • Reduction in ventilator days
  • Lower operational costs; higher contribution margins

Access TeleCare’s teleIntensivists are a direct extension of your team, providing cognitive resources, guidance, and support to effectively navigate constant change and make life-saving patient care decisions.

Pricing for teleICU Services

A one-time implementation fee per service line

  • Dedicated PMP-certified project manager
  • Includes Initiation & Planning, IT, Operations/Workflow, Licensing & Privileging, Orientation & Training, and Launch

Monthly technology and support fee

  • Continuous 24×7 support throughout the life of the partnership including a dedicated Client Success Executive
  • Cart endpoint readiness checks (by the Access TeleCare Consult Coordination Center)
  • 24/7 IT support through the Access TeleCare Network Operations Center (NOC)
  • License for data visualization tool through Tableau

TeleICU Consults

  • Access TeleCare takes a customized approach to provide teleICU proposals based on several clinical metrics pertinent to the characteristics of the ICU, current clinical staffing profile of the unit, and desired coverage requested by the hospital (24/7 or 12/7).
  • Access TeleCare charges a set monthly consultation fee that is customized based on your hospital’s unique ICU needs. The monthly fee is inclusive of both SMARTRounds® (proactive approach) and reactive consultations.

The heart of the hospital

In many ways, the ICU is the heart of the hospital. It is an intellectually, physically, and emotionally challenging environment. Those who specialize in caring for the critically ill understand that providing high-quality care is a team sport.