TeleCritical Care at Intermountain Healthcare is the service provided
by a proactive monitoring and response center where an intensivist
physician and critical care nurses monitor data on large patient
populations and act as clinical decision support to bedside staff.
Intermountain officially formed the telemedicine initiative five years ago
and began to incorporate it into clinical operations. Over that period of
time, we’ve emphasized the development of our telemedicine services
in conjunction with our Clinical Programs—specifically Critical
Care, a branch of Intensive Medicine—and we’ve recently expanded
telemedicine services to serve all ICUs throughout our system.
This TeleCritical Care team uses Intermountain’s network of
audiovisual communication and computer systems to aid caregivers
in emergency situations. In addition to these events, TeleCritical
Care plays a direct role in ensuring that established best practices are
applied reliably across the ICU population. This service is especially
needed in our rural populations, where critical care services are not
as robust.
The TeleCritical Care initiative and services are run by a support center
that includes a team of 22 doctors and 20 nurses, serving 263 critical
care beds across 12 facilities in Utah and Idaho.
Since the TeleCritical Care group was formed, Intermountain has
observed improvements in mortality rates in community and tertiary
care facilities. The greatest improvements have occurred in community
hospital ICUs and in overall mortality rates.