Hi-Tech Hospitals Keep You Safe
Ivanhoe Newswire
PHOENIX (Sept. 15, 2009) -- More people die in hospitals on the weekends than on weekdays. You're less likely to die from a heart attack during the day than at night. These facts are from a study done by the American Medical Association. Hospital staffing could be one cause. That's why hospitals are now turning to hi-tech help to give doctors and nurses an extra set of eyes.
After Dean Murphy had a frightening arrhythmia, he wound up in ICU at Banner Baywood Medical Center.
"Bingo, all of a sudden you go from good to very bad," Murphy told Ivanhoe.
Nurses like Mary Ann Marshall know they can't be with every patient every minute.
"As much as you want to be by the bedside constantly, you cannot," Marshall, who is an ICU registered nurse at Banner Health's iCare Intensive Care, located at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Ariz., told Ivanhoe. "It's impossible."
Now, someone's got her back.
An intensive care specialist monitors Murphy from a remote ICU center. Specialists monitor dozens of ICU patients in nine different hospitals, some hundreds of miles away.
In-room cameras let them do virtual rounds and even zoom in if something doesn't look right.
