Banner Gateway starts innovative
remote monitoring of medical/surgical patients
GILBERT, Ariz. (Feb. 25, 2009) – Banner Gateway Medical Center is the first hospital in the country to implement a state-of-the-art, remote patient monitoring care delivery model for all its medical and surgical patients.
Called iCare - Medical Surgical Care, this innovative solution provides an extra level of care to patients admitted for surgery and medical conditions. Most patients admitted to hospitals are medical or surgical patients. Banner Gateway has 79 beds with this designation and Banner Health has more than 2,300 beds total that could potentially benefit from this new patient care model.
“With iCare, we can improve patient outcomes, reduce patient transfers to the Intensive Care Unit, identify potential problems before they become serious, and leverage the expertise of our workforce through technology and teamwork,” said Kathy Scott, RN, PhD, FACHE, Banner Health’s Arizona Regional Vice President of Clinical Services.
“Together with our technology partners, physicians and nursing staff, we have created a new way to care for medical and surgical patients that will improve patient care, reduce costs and address the current and projected shortages of physicians and nurses in health care.”
Banner Health has partnered with Philips VISICU, the company that holds the patent on the eICU Program currently used to remotely monitor most of Banner’s ICU patients across the country. iCare extends the eICU technology that is currently monitoring critical care patients. This new care model partners nurses in a remote monitoring center with nurses at the bedside for the provision of minute-by-minute care.
Expert nurses, nurse practitioners and case managers work in the iCare Center 24 hours a day, tracking patient vital signs and test results and alerting staff to potential complications before they become more serious. The iCare team can identify potential complications, provide support to nurses in the patient room, assist with admission and discharge processes, answer patient and family requests, and provide patient education. By responding to these changes early, more serious problems can often be prevented.
During the first few days of operation, several potential patient conditions were identified and addressed early enough to avoid patient transfers to the ICU. Patients received early intervention from the care team for elevated blood pressures, irregular heart rates and poor oxygen saturation.
The iCare solution includes a remote audiovisual monitoring system that allows for two way communication between the patient and the iCare nurse. A camera and monitor in the patient room facilitate face-to-face conversations. Advanced monitoring technologies in the iCare Center, where the iCare team is housed, provides all the clinical data necessary to monitor patient conditions and identify changes in patient status.
About Banner Gateway Medical Center
Banner Gateway Medical Center has 176 all-private rooms, nine operating suites and a 37-bed Emergency Department. All 79 medical/surgical beds are equipped with iCare technology. In addition, the hospital’s 24 Intensive Care beds are monitored via similar technology that provides remote monitoring by intensive care physicians and nurses.
About Banner Health
Banner Health is one of the largest, nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns or manages 22 acute-care hospitals, long-term care centers and an array of other services including family clinics, home care services, a nursing registry and home medical equipment services in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. To learn more about Banner Health, go to www.BannerHealth.com
