By Healthcare Facilities Today

A new electronic monitoring system goes live this month within the intensive care unit at OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center, according to an article in the Morris Daily Herald. The new program, called OSF ConstantCare, is an advanced telemedicine solution using eICU remote monitoring technology to enhance the care of critically ill patients.

Through this technology, a specially trained eICU team of critical care physicians (intensivists), nurses and other health care professionals can accurately monitor critical care patients from an off-site location, called the eICU Center. This technology offers patients and their families an extra layer of critical care when it is needed the most, according to the article.

“OSF ConstantCare will offer increased peace of mind to OSF patients and families as it will provide additional insight from trained critical care specialists looking after patients in our ICUs at all times,” Dr. William Tillis, the program’s medical director, said.

Patients who are admitted to the ICU in Ottawa are still cared for by their local physician but will now also receive 24-hour care by intensivists in the Peoria monitoring center who serve as a second set of eyes for local physicians and nurses. Studies have shown improved outcomes and decreased lengths of stays for patients in ICUs managed by intensivists.

Read the article.