Telemedicine in Intensive Care: Its Role in Infection Control in Spoke ICU Units
Since the beginning of the previous decade, the prevalence of infectious diseases has become pretty high. For instance, almost 61,000 people were diagnosed with the salmonella virus in the USA alone (2019).
Conversely, around 15.5 million people visited their doctor or a hospital due to the same reason. Amongst them, the health condition of 3.4 million people was critical and, thus, required emergency assistance.
So, how can such a delirious situation be repelled?
According to a medical expert, a proper restructuring of a Tele-ICU system in an ICU environment can be ideal in this context.
Here’s how it can uplift the overall medical structure to some extent, especially in the Infection Control system of an ICU.
Easier to Treat Patients in a Remote Location
Usually, the rural areas of a nation tend to be at a higher risk of contracting an infectious disease, mainly because of poor hygienic practices. Most affected people try to ignore their situation as they have to travel to a city to get treated.
In any case, this situation can be controlled by employing Tele-ICU due to the availability of an audio-visual system.
With it, a doctor can monitor the current health condition of a patient and treat them accordingly. Moreover, they can also take emergency measurements by collaborating with a local physician in the same area.
According to a research module, almost 100,000 people consulted with their doctors in this way in 2020.
Furthermore, a Tele-ICU system can be used by almost anyone, as long as they have a fundamental idea about it. As per a study, 69% of people used the telemedicine system successfully in their homes.
A Safer Alternative
With a Tele-ICU system, a physician can instantly know if their patient is experiencing any severe symptom or not. This way, it becomes easier for them to control the problem and keep the person in better shape than before.
Due to this reason, almost 93% of doctors consider telemedicine to be an ideal option for proposing medical care. Conversely, 89% of clinicians think that it can offer satisfactory results for follow-up care as well.
Prevention from Hospital Acquired Infection through Tele ICU
Through Tele ICU system, eNext ICU provides training programmes to nurses and doctors which helps spoke unit to understand and implement aseptic measures while dealing with critically ill patients. Furthermore, Tele-Intensivist helps to teaches measures in prevention of CAUTI (Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection) and CLABSI (Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infection).
Better Results
With most infectious diseases, a doctor has to treat their patient as quickly and efficiently as possible. Otherwise, the chances of failure will increase pretty promptly.
However, with Tele-ICU in their armoury, they can treat their patients much more efficiently. It, in turn, can lead to a 26% increase in the critical disease survival rate.
In addition, it can also improve the overall patient discharge rate by 20%. So, overall, this system can offer much better results than usual.
CONCLUSION
Introducing a Tele-ICU system in an ICU infrastructure can be somewhat expensive. However, the results it can provide in return are undeniably alluring. It can, in a way, improve the success rate and reputation of a hospital to some extent as well. Hopefully, the system will improve further to become a flawless concept in the medical cosmos.
