KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kodiak is on the leading edge of medical monitoring technology and this week marks the 1 year anniversary for the use of equipment that has decreases the need for expensive and dangerous medevacs.
KMXT’s Maggie Wall has more.
-((eICU 3:29 "It doesn’t look…one of the units. SOC."))
It doesn’t look much different from any of the other monitors or equipment that you’d find in a hospital, but this piece-known as an e-I-C-U is making a big difference for critically ill or injured patients at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center.
The electronic Intensive Care Unit links Kodiak’s critical patients with a team of critical care experts at the Providence Hospital in Anchorage by way of a camera, a screen and any number of electronic monitors attached to the patient.
Borghy Holm, who is the communications coordinator for Providence in Kodiak explains how the eICU works.
–Borghy Holm How it works :48
Holm says the eICU units-yes it’s works so well the hospital now has two of them-have monitored 66 critical care patients in the first year of use. That includes two children-one an infant.
And, she says, the constant, real-time connection with Anchorage specialists has meant fewer people needing to be medevac’d off the island.
–Borghy Holm 14 fewer medevacs :16
Sue Roberts is the House Nurse working the 12-hour night shift at Kodiak’s hospital. She said the night shift probably has the most interaction with the eICU team in Anchorage. It was a bit weird at first, but the eICU quickly earned its place as essential hospital equipment.
–Sue Roberts treating more locally :36
And that local treatment option, says Holm, makes a huge difference in how quickly a patient recovers.
–Borghy Holm Stay with families :20
Providence Hospital has the only eICU units in Alaska and Kodiak was the first rural hospital in the state to use one of the units.
I’m Maggie Wall.
