eICU

Welcome to allnurses.com! The post got moved to the ICU Forums for better exposure; hope it helps!

Suebird :)

What in the world is an eicu?

eICU is electronic ICU, nurses and occasionally docs are watching over cameras and watching trends of patients from another location.

My hospital has had eICU for about a year now with many mixed feelings. There are times when it helps and they call with labs etc, when things have been missed, and i work in a teaching hospital so i have used then when the interns have no clue what to do but also they'll call 2 minutes after an admission and ask for information on them and its like they're just now being hooked up to the monitor i don't know anything about them yet.

I think the biggest issue between the bedside nurses and the eicu nurses has been when they camera into the rooms and don't ding in and announce themselves. There have been times when they've come in during a bath and not gone back out, or there was one time the nurse in the eicu came in during a bath and the nurse was doing central line care what she deemed inappropriately didn't ask questions or anything, but sent a note to her manager and then it got sent to the unit manager etc..

well that scurrying about in the corners does not sound pro-active. However, we are pioleting EICU in our level 1 trauma center just in the neuro ICU and they seem pretty cool. They announce themselve when they tune in(which kind of freaks me out to have someone all of the sudden be talking to me & no one's there) if they notice labs or vitals askew they will either announce in the room when the camera is on or call us on the unit. For the most part each time they became involved, i have already addressed the issue with the patient's doc, but i like that they are there for me ( especially being new to neuro). I have to say they would be a godsend on the unit i left, as some nurses ignored some very frightening things and they would not go unnoticed with eicu.

Thanks for your input. I have mixed feelings about eICU, but have offered to do some shifts to help it get started.

Thanks also for your input. I appreciate it.

I was so happy to see this posting as I have only recently read about the eICU concept and wanted to learn more. In doing a little research, I found some articles that touted the eICU as something being very positive overall, but found little information on how nurses and patients felt about it. Most of the articles spoke from an intensivist and technology standpoint, how great the technology is, how fast it works, etc. There was also a lot of talk about how an eICU can save the hospital money (using a centrally located intensivist vs. paying one or more to be on staff at the hospital), how patient stays have been decreased and how mortality rates have dropped.

So...I guess my question is two-fold:

1) How have patients and their families responded to the eICU experience? It would seem that some would be opposed the idea of being viewed remotely by a doctor vs. seeing one face to face.

2) Has anyone seen the pay-offs of the eICU mentioned above? (shorter stays, decreased mortality).

I was so happy to see this posting as I have only recently read about the eICU concept and wanted to learn more. In doing a little research, I found some articles that touted the eICU as something being very positive overall, but found little information on how nurses and patients felt about it. Most of the articles spoke from an intensivist and technology standpoint, how great the technology is, how fast it works, etc. There was also a lot of talk about how an eICU can save the hospital money (using a centrally located intensivist vs. paying one or more to be on staff at the hospital), how patient stays have been decreased and how mortality rates have dropped.

So...I guess my question is two-fold:

1) How have patients and their families responded to the eICU experience? It would seem that some would be opposed the idea of being viewed remotely by a doctor vs. seeing one face to face.

2) Has anyone seen the pay-offs of the eICU mentioned above? (shorter stays, decreased mortality).

I wish I could answer your questions, but our eICU doesn't open till April 4. Very good questions. I will send another note on how we are doing after it has been opened and see if I have some input on the questions asked.

Thanks and good luck with your eICU!

So...any updates on your eICU experience? I've recently found out about it and am FASCINATED!

It has been interesting. So far, the director hasn't shown any data as to know how beneficial eICU is. Still is a great deal of lack of understanding vs. not wanting to accept or know anything about eICU from the physicians/nurses in our major hospital that eICU is based out of. We only have an intensivist on night shift in eICU, no dr. on days. I believe the small ICU in the smaller town does accept the concept of eICU better and the physicians have given the intensivist more leeway in caring for their patients during the night shift hrs. Still so much politics in my bigger institution and lack of acceptance of new things that might improve pt. care. But eICU is not going away as my institution spent big bucks buying the system. Many nurses in ICU feel it is an intrusion and it comes across in the tone of their voices when talking to them on the phone. We try not to intrude if we camera in and see the nurses are providing care unless we really have a necessary question to ask. But it is still new for us, so maybe this will get better. We probably are monitoring around 80 ICU beds now with more coming on line in Aug. and the latter part of the year.

It has been interesting. So far, the director hasn't shown any data as to know how beneficial eICU is. Still is a great deal of lack of understanding vs. not wanting to accept or know anything about eICU from the physicians/nurses in our major hospital that eICU is based out of. We only have an intensivist on night shift in eICU, no dr. on days. I believe the small ICU in the smaller town does accept the concept of eICU better and the physicians have given the intensivist more leeway in caring for their patients during the night shift hrs. Still so much politics in my bigger institution and lack of acceptance of new things that might improve pt. care. But eICU is not going away as my institution spent big bucks buying the system. Many nurses in ICU feel it is an intrusion and it comes across in the tone of their voices when talking to them on the phone. We try not to intrude if we camera in and see the nurses are providing care unless we really have a necessary question to ask. But it is still new for us, so maybe this will get better. We probably are monitoring around 80 ICU beds now with more coming on line in Aug. and the latter part of the year.

Thank you for your comments.

I work in a large academic center, and we are building a new Children's Hospital. I wonder how it would work for monitoring our ICU beds. The only thing is that we have Neonatal, Pediatric and Peds Cardio Thoracic ICU's. I would think in that case it would be a challenge to recruit staff nurses for the eICU who are comfortable with all the ICU's unless they are our current float pool nurses who float all of them.

In our main hospital, we have six ICU's two telemetry step down floors and a new cardio vascular center opening. I wonder again, how does a thoracic nurse staff eICU for a Trauma patient? Are there protocols? Standing orders?

I am really interested in the system.

Thank you so much for your responses.