eHealthWatch Breaking News

DR. JIM SHAFFER on the cover of the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Space Coast Medicine magazine.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Dr. James Shaffer, medical director of the VitalWatch eICU at Health First, was featured in an Oct. 27 story in The Wall Street Journal entitled, "The Picture of Health – With critical-care specialists in short supply, remote monitoring offers a high-tech solution."

To read the story, and hear Dr. Shaffer's Podcast, "How eICUs Work," CLICK HERE.

'Vexing Problem'

The Wall Street Journal story focused on remote monitoring of Intensive Care Units, a high-tech solution to the "vexing problem facing a growing number of hospitals: how to care for the sickest patients amid a worsening shortage of intensivists, the critical-care specialists trained in caring for life-threatening injuries or illnesses."

Brevard resident Jennifer Gale was interviewd about her experience with the Health First eICU. Bleeding heavily after an emergency C-section last year, she ended up in the intensive-care unit at Holmes Regional Medical Center. Throughout the night, the critical-care specialist on duty closely watched her vital signs, ordering additional units of blood until her condition stabilized.

According to story, Ms. Gale, 31, a high-school teacher and volleyball coach, said that learning that a specialist was manning the eICU helped reassure her when she was frightened and distraught at being separated from her newborn.

"I know he was watching me all night long," she said in the story. "I really felt I was getting the kind of care I might not have received otherwise."

Dr. Shaffer was interview by health reporter Laura Landro for both the print and online versions of The Wall Street Journal. The online version included the story as well as an audio Podcast highlighting both Dr. Shaffer and Health First's high tech initiative.

To read the story, and hear Dr. Shaffer's Podcast, "How eICUs Work," CLICK HERE.

Mortality Rate Decreased

Dr. Shaffer, a pulmonologist and critical care expert, has been the VitalWatch Medical Director and also its chief cheerleader since its inception. In the five-year period starting the year before VitalWatch began and running through fiscal year 2007, the mortality rate in all Health First intensive care units decreased.

Mike Means

At Holmes Regional Medical Center, home to four Intensive Care Units, including one for heart surgery patients, the ICU mortality rate fell 2 percent.  Cape Canaveral Hospital’s 12-bed ICU saw 19.3 percent fewer deaths, with a 35 percent lower mortality rate at Palm Bay Hospital’s ICU.

During that same time period there was a big jump in the seriousness of the ailments that landed patients in the ICU as measured by what the Medicare system refers to as “Severity of Illness.” About 70 percent of all Health First ICU patients are now at an acuity level 3 or 4, categories which reflect the highest severity of illness.

“Our code rate, that’s the number of people who actually have cardiac arrest in the intensive care units, has dropped. How much is that worth? If it’s your mother, father, husband, son, whoever — that’s worth a ton,” says Health First CEO Mike Means.

TO READ MORE CLICK HERE.

Health First's VitalWatch, Central Florida's only remote critical care management system, has been featured on the Health First Family Channel. Staffed 24/7, VitalWatch's critical care physicians and nurses monitor remotely every ICU bed in all three Health First hospitals using state-of-the art technology.

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