Process Improvement Through Tele-ICU can be the Backbone of Achieving High-quality ICU Outcomes

Jul 05 2021

Process Improvement Through Tele-ICU can be the Backbone of Achieving High-quality ICU Outcomes

The concept of having a “radio doctor” first came jokingly into the view in the year of 1924. While the infrastructure seemed like a far-fetched notion during that period, it has become a reality in 2021. But why has the need for this technology risen so much in recent years?

In essence, the massive gap between demand and supply in the medicinal world has influenced this aspect massively. According to a report, there is only one doctor available to treat almost 1,511 people in India. Conversely, as of now, around one nurse is taking care of 670 patients in the country.

Due to this reason, both medical negligence and psychological burnout (for the doctors) have become a common scenario. A report suggests that almost 43% of doctors tend to experience emotional exhaustion due to work pressure.

Additionally, the issue of medical negligence accounts for almost 98,000 deaths every year in India.

However, with the recent optimization of telemedicine in ICU, such diegesis has changed massively. For example, Tele-ICU has potentially reduced the mortality rate by 15%-60% amongst critically-ailed patients.

But, how has the technology managed to perform so extensively in the troubled medicinal cosmos? Let’s learn more in this aspect!

The Tele-ICU technology, in truth, provides a type of leveraging intensivist coverage over a huge number of critical patients. If implemented successfully, the aforementioned infrastructure can help one doctor and four caregivers to treat around 150 patients situated in distant ICUs.

In a Tele-ICU system, the clinicians usually utilize a specialized support system, which offers an accurate vitality assessment of the patient. It also tracks the clinical values of the person and alerts the doctor about the adverse trends occurring in the treatment procedure.

This way, it becomes easier for a doctor to detect the ailment quickly and provide the best possible care to the patient. Reportedly, such practice can lower the staying period in a hospice by 30%.

Additionally, a Tele-ICU system can also help the staff members to proffer immediate management of critical patients. The remote monitoring feature included in the infrastructure offers a sense of confidence and security to the caregivers.

Using a Tele-ICU system, a doctor can shorten the response time between them and their patients by 45%. It can help the severely ailed people to get timely aid and have thriving health in no time.

With the telemedicine procedure, a physician can also standardize the real-time collaboration system and achieve a higher adherence percentage. Thus, focusing on a single person becomes much easier for them.

A medical trainee is naturally prone to making mistakes. A study on 130 such medical residents suggests that almost 98.5% of people made an erroneous comment or mistake during the research period.

However, this situation can also be countered with the usage of a Tele-ICU system. By using it, a resident trainee can have an in-depth idea about the ailment and current condition of the patient.

This way, their clinical reasoning and decision-making persona will develop more aggressively. Besides, access to medical oversight can also help them in maintaining higher confidence and consistency amongst them.

In order to treat critically ill patients without endangering the lives of healthcare personnel, the COVID19 pandemic requires a more solution-oriented approach, regardless of geographic dispersion.

By Tele-ICU platform, the number of employees required to be physically present inside COVID care units and ICUs hasreduced. This reduces the danger of HealthCare Workers being exposed to COVID.

Through Two-way Audio-visual Cameras, the tele-intensivist adds another pair of eyes to the bedside physicians, as well as a clinician which helps to lower the stress and burden of on-site staff.