Following natural disasters and in times of national crisis, America’s private sector steps up to aid the states. We are proud of the herculean efforts of CSG Leadership Circle and Associates, our private sector members, as we combat COVID-19 together. Associates in Action articles highlight CSG Associates’ philanthropic efforts and public-private partnerships throughout the states.
Philips Healthcare, a CSG Associate and a global leader in health technology, and UK HealthCare, the clinical enterprise of the University of Kentucky, announced a collaboration to create Kentucky’s only operating clinical command center for tele-critical care and operational optimization. Leveraging Philips’ acute telehealth platform eCareManager, UK HealthCare is implementing a centralized virtual care model to help providers detect risk of patient deterioration so they can intervene earlier and help improve care outcomes for the organization’s sickest patients. The application of virtual monitoring — eICU — will help aid UK Healthcare’s teams in care provision for COVID-19 patients.
Philips’ eICU program is built around eCareManager, which uses advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to synthesize patient data and deliver actionable insights to support proactive care. Using this comprehensive system, UK HealthCare will provide 24/7 remote monitoring and access to specialists for patients in the neurological, trauma, surgery, post-anesthesia care, medical intensive care, emergency department and cardiovascular patient care venues. The institution also aims to improve bed utilization and patient flow across its 160 ICU beds at two hospitals.
The eICU allows off-site clinicians to monitor ICU patients 24 hours, 365 days a year through audio, video, patient monitoring and predictive analytics technology, allowing remote clinicians to continuously monitor ICU patients for early warning signals or acute problems. These offsite clinicians then interact with bedside physicians and nurses to consult on patient care. One centralized care team can monitor and support a large number of ICU beds across geographical locations. Now, one in eight adult ICU beds in the United States are being monitored through eICU. The eICU is primarily used in rural, community hospitals to ensure proper patient monitoring and care in ICUs where there are clinician/doctor shortages.
Since COVID-19 is predominantly a respiratory illness, patients with more severe cases may require ICU care. eCareManager acuity-based scoring tools monitor a patient’s condition to detect subtle deteriorations prior to becoming adverse events. Predictive AI-enabled algorithms such as Sentry Score, designed to focus on a patients cardiovascular and Respiratory systems, provide clinicians in the telehealth center with predictive insights into those patients with the highest probability of requiring an intervention in the next 60 minutes. As bed availability and critical decisions on patient throughput are required, eCareManager integrates as part of its Clinical Performance Applications Suite the Discharge Readiness Score, a predictive algorithm that provides clinicians objective scoring on a patient’s risk of death or readmission within 48 hours of a planned discharge.
“In these most challenging times, healthcare organizations need digital technology to enhance the patient experience, improve health outcomes, lower the cost of care, and enhance the work-life of care providers now more than ever before,” said Roy Jakobs, chief business leader of Connected Care and member of the Executive Committee at Royal Philips. “Partnering with UK HealthCare to address these concerns for the sickest patients demonstrates Philips’ commitment to deliver unique approaches to help meet the demand of healthcare’s greatest challenges.”
“This partnership is vital to our foundational vision of high value care. Leveraging technology and highly developed clinical algorithms will aid our progressive high-performance health system,” said Dr. Colleen Swartz, vice president for hospital operations at UK HealthCare. “Especially during this time of increased need for very specific isolation and care models in managing COVID-19 patients, the application of virtual monitoring will aid our teams in care provision. Philips is an essential partner in our efforts to progress care across the state.”
“I applaud the launch of Kentucky’s first eICU clinic by CSG Associate member Philips Healthcare and UK Healthcare. It is just this kind of public-private partnership that ensures we properly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you for modeling collaboration and care,” said Kentucky state Rep. Kelly Flood.
Philips tele-critical care platforms are available around the globe with clinical informatics applications supporting bedside, unit and virtual care delivery models. For more information on how Philips is addressing the Coronavirus, please visit the Philips centralized COVID-19 hub: https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/medical-specialties/covid-19#!=