Six independent rural Maryland hospitals will implement virtual intensive care units, to be monitored by an existing virtual ICU program in an integrated delivery system based in Delaware.
The program, announced Monday in Washington, D.C., represents the largest collaborative to share resources to bring improved ICU services to multiple unaffiliated hospitals.
The organizations say that the program, called Maryland eCare, could be a model for bringing virtual ICU services to rural areas. While virtual ICUs serve about 200 hospitals nationwide, they're usually operated in facilities operated by a single integrated delivery system.
The technology in the Maryland project is from VisICU, a Baltimore-based technology company.
The six participating rural facilities are Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Calvert Memorial Hospital in Prince Frederick, Civista Medical Center in LaPlata, Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, St. Mary's Hospital in Leonardtown and Washington County Health System in Hagerstown.
Four other hospitals are interested in joining the Maryland collaborative, executives said.
Maryland eCare's remote monitoring center will be based at an existing virtual eICU center at Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del. Christiana has used VisICU's product since November 2005 and uses it to provide virtual ICU services at four ICUs in its two hospitals.
Christiana has excess capacity and will provide ICU services from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and on a 24-hour basis on weekends, said Marc T. Zubrow, medical director of Maryland eCare and director of critical care medicine at Christiana.
The initiative will be backed by a $3 million grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the largest payer for the Maryland hospitals. Funding will cover startup implementation and carry the project through 2010.
After implementation, the facilities will pay $37,000 per ICU bed per year to Christiana for ongoing virtual ICU services.
On Monday, executives from the participating rural facilities said it's nearly impossible to hire intensivists for round-the-clock coverage. They depend on on-call physicians for ICU coverage, but consulting them often involves time delays that negatively affect care and outcomes for patients in ICUs, who need proactive monitoring.
Those in the collaborative say the model is backed by evidence of improved survival rates, shorter hospital stays and reduced costs.
CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, offers health insurance products and administrative services to more than 3.2 million individuals and groups in Maryland, northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. It believes its investment in virtual ICU technology can improve care quality and head off extremely costly care during medical crises in ICUs, said Chet Burrell, CareFirst's president and CEO.