By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN

There is an intriguing new technology available to hospital ICUs. It’s called an eICU.  At Alegent Health in Omaha, Nebraska, the “software feeds real time data for roughly 100 patients, including vital signs, laboratory tests, cultures, and pharmacy data,” to nurses and a doctor monitoring the eICU from off site. Using the data, the software sets off alerts that are noted by the eICU staff and passed on to the bedside staff. The bedside clinicians have said that the extra help has allowed them to focus on bedside care.

About two years into its use, an interesting side benefit of this remote monitoring system was noted by the hospital’s director of infection control. She realized that the eICU allowed her to monitor and promote compliance to practice bundles as well as to compile data to promote better antimicrobial measures.

The article reports that the staff initially felt a bit concerned about being watched by “big brother.” However, the hospital promoted the idea of the eICU as a “part of the team” instead of an intrusion, an approach that appears to have been successful.

As a nurse who works to improve compliance to best practices that reduce hospital-acquired conditions, particularly bloodstream infections, I feel this presents an amazing opportunity to promote patient safety.  For example, when I perform hospital audits, I see poor compliance to hand washing and the cleansing of IV access ports. These two practices are proven to help decrease the spread of […]