Virtual Doctors Help Ease Hospitals' Burden

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 25, 2005 — -- In the intensive care units of hospitals like Inova Alexandria Hospital, patients hover precariously between life and death. But often the biggest problem doctors and nurses face is not medicine or science but simple physics.

"No matter how good of a nurse you are -- and I've been a nurse a long time, and I consider myself a fairly good critical nurse -- I can't be in two places at once," said critical care nurse Melanie Swecker.

Thanks to new technology called an "enhanced intensive care unit," or eICU, Swecker now has extra help from doctors and nurses watching her patients from a control center nine miles away.

Using cameras, microphones and computer software, Dr. Elizabeth Cowboy and her colleagues monitor up to 108 patients in five Virginia hospitals.

From the control center, Cowboy makes virtual rounds on patients like Tamisa Pope. On her six computer screens, Cowboy checks Pope's medical chart, breathing, heart rate and other vital signs. They even have conversations.

While the eICU technology is only five years old, hospitals in 19 states are now using it. The system is not meant as a replacement for doctors and nurses making rounds in person, but as an added layer of protection -- extra eyes, ears and expertise.

"We have patients whose oxygen comes out [or who] try to get out of bed that our eyes, our cameras, have been able to see faster than the nurse who's busy in the next room," said Swecker.

"We have been able to assist the bedside team in saving lives," said Cowboy. "[We're] making sure that all of the emergency response gets there quickly."

A preliminary study last year in the journal Critical Care Medicine found eICUs reduced hospital mortality for intensive care patients by 27 percent. The total time of a patient's stay was also slightly reduced from an average of 3.63 days to 3.21 days, resulting in lower costs for patients.

"It definitely makes you feel safer," said Pope. "This morning I had a problem with my oxygen going down they were like Johnny on the spot."