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Measuring tele‐ICU impact: does it optimize quality outcomes for the critically ill patient?
Author(s) -
GORAN SUSAN F.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of nursing management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1365-2834
pISSN - 0966-0429
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01414.x
Subject(s) - medicine , intensive care unit , nursing , quality management , patient safety , medical emergency , intensive care medicine , health care , operations management , management system , economics , economic growth
Goran s.f. (2012) Journal of Nursing Management 20, 414–428
Measuring tele‐ICU impact: does it optimize quality outcomes for the critically ill patient? Aims To determine the relationship between tele‐ICU (intensive care unit) implementations and improvement in quality measures and patient outcomes. Background Tele‐ICUs were designed to leverage scarce critical‐care experts and promised to improve patient quality. Evaluation Abstracts and peer‐reviewed articles were reviewed to identify the associations between tele‐ICU programmes and clinical outcomes, cost savings, and customer satisfaction. Key Issues Few peer‐reviewed studies are available and many variables in each study limit the ability to associate study conclusions to the overall tele‐ICU programme. Further research is required to explore the impact of the tele‐ICU on patient/family satisfaction. Research findings are highly dependent upon the level of ICU acceptance. Conclusions The tele‐ICU, in collaboration with the ICU team, can be a valuable tool for the enhancement of quality goals although the ability to demonstrate cost savings is extremely complex. Studies clearly indicate that tele‐ICU nursing vigilance can enhance patient safety by preventing potential patient harm. Implications for nursing management Nursing managers and leaders play a vital part in optimizing the quality role of the tele‐ICU through supportive modelling and the maximization of ICU integration.