Cameras and audio devices installed in critical-care rooms at North Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Harrison will give patients and staff members immediate access to specialists in Little Rock, officials said.
Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock has partnered with the hospital to provide electronic intensive-care-unit services, according to a news release from the hospitals.
The service includes a team of critical-care specialists monitoring vital signs of patients in the Harrison hospital 24 hours
a day, Jack Griebel, medical director of eICU, said Tuesday. He said a two-way video camera, microphone and speakers will help Baptist Health staff members in Little Rock communicate with North Arkansas Regional staff members and patients in Harrison.
Griebel said the Little Rock center is staffed by five critical-care nurses and an intensive-care specialist physician. He said the number of staff members can increase or decrease depending on patient population.
The center monitors critical-care patients in six hospitals in the Baptist Health system. It also monitors, or is contracted to monitor, patients at 10 hospitals not funded by the Baptist Health system. North Arkansas Regional is not a part of the Baptist Health system.
North Arkansas Regional’s equipment should be operational in less than a week, Griebel said.
A North Arkansas Regional nurse who notices that a patient is having breathing problems is an example of how the service’s staff members can assist quickly, Griebel said.
“If someone is at the bedside, they will probably see it before we will,” Griebel said. “In the worst-case scenario, the patient is deteriorating rapidly, and we can give the nurse permission to put the patient on a ventilator.”
Staff members in the electronic intensive-care center will decide to use the ventilator by reading the patient’s vitals and viewing the patient on the camera, Griebel said. He said without the service, the nurse would have to page a doctor on call and wait for the doctor to call back.
Baptist Health Medical Center has been serving patients in Arkansas for 80 years, according to its website. It has seven hospitals along with numerous rehabilitation facilities, family clinics and therapy and wellness centers in the state.
North Arkansas Regional Medical Center opened 62 years ago, according to its website. The facility has 174 beds and more than 800 employees.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 10/30/2013