RESEARCH ARTICLE


Tele-ICU: Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness Approach of Remotely Managing the Critical Care



Sajeesh Kumar*, Shezana Merchant , Rebecca Reynolds
Department of Health Informatics & Information Management, University of Tennessee Health Science Center,920 Madison Avenue Suite 518, Memphis, Tennessee 38163, USA

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2013
Volume: 7
First Page: 24
Last Page: 29
Publisher Id: TOMINFOJ-7-24
DOI: 10.2174/1874431101307010024

Article History:

Received Date: 26/7/2012
Revision Received Date: 22/9/2012
Acceptance Date: 23/9/2012
Electronic publication date: 23 /8/2013
Collection year: 2013

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© Kumar et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Health Informatics & Information Management, University of Tennessee Health Science Center,920 Madison Avenue Suite 518, Memphis, Tennessee 38163, USA; Tel: 901-448-2125; Fax: 901-448-1629; E-mail: skumar10@uthsc.edu


Abstract

Tele-ICU has an off-site command center in which a critical care team (intensivists and critical care nurses) is connected with patients in distance intensive care units (ICUs) through a real-time audio, visual and electronic means and health information is exchanged. The aim of this paper is to review literature to explore the available studies related to efficacy and cost effectiveness of Tele-ICU applications and to study the possible barriers to broader adoption. While studies draw conclusions on cost based on the mortality and Length of Stay (LOS), actual cost was not reported. Another problem in the studies was the lack of consistent measurement, reporting and adjustment for patient severity. From the data available, Tele-ICU seems to be a promising path, especially in the United States where there is a limited number of board-certified intensivists.

Keywords: : Cost-effectiveness, critical care, Telehealth.