NEWS: eICU CARE Comes To Rapid City and Spearfish Regional Hospitals
07/27/2010 - RAPID CITY, SD – The eICU® CARE program is in operation at both Rapid City Regional Hospital (RCRH) and Spearfish Regional Hospital (SPRH). The program is a patient monitoring system which allows an additional team of experts to observe and evaluate critically ill patients in multiple ICUs and hospitals from a single location. The ICU teams at RCRH and SPRH work with the eICU® CARE Team, located in Sioux Falls, S.D. and operated by the Avera health system. The eICU® CARE team is staffed with experienced critical care physicians and nurses who continually monitor the clinical, physiological and laboratory data of patients in Rapid City and Spearfish.
Patient information, including vital signs, medications and test results is sent over secure, high-speed data lines to the eICU® CARE Center in Sioux Falls. Continuous monitoring by physicians and computers, helps bring attention to even slight changes in patient conditions, allowing for early intervention before significant problems may occur.
Each eICU® room at RCRH and SPRH has a real-time camera to examine patients and communicate with staff, patients and family. The camera has no video or audio taping capabilities. It is turned on only when eICU® CARE physicians, nurses and support staff in Sioux Falls need to see the patient, or when requested by the bedside staff. When the camera is turned on it beeps and turns toward the patient to let people in the room know it is in use.
Funding to implement eICU® CARE came from a grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. The Charitable Trust’s rural health care program provides funding for innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to specialty medical care.
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Trust, established in 1999, is administered by five trustees selected by Leona Helmsley as a continuation of Mr. and Mrs. Helmsley’s generous giving through their lifetimes. The Trust supports a diverse range of organizations with a major focus on health and medical research, in addition to programs in human services, education and conservation.
###
|
E-Mail
Print
