ANCHORAGE, AK – In a state where healthcare has sometimes been delivered by telephone, snowmobile or even dogsled, Philips VISICU and Providence Alaska Medical Center are looking to connect doctor and patient via the Internet.

Officials announced Wednesday that VISICU, the Baltimore-based telehealth unit of Dutch healthcare IT giant Royal Philips Electronics, has implemented its eICU Program at Providence Alaska Medical Center's Health Park in Anchorage. The new eICU center, staffed around the clock, combines early warning alerts and remote monitoring technology to connect off-site critical care specialists to ICU patients and their care teams in the medial center.

Providence is part of Providence Health & Services, a not-for-profit network of hospitals, care centers, health plans, physicians, clinics, home health services and educational facilities.

Providence plans to expand the program to surrounding hospitals and as a supplement to local care - an important goal for the nation’s largest and most rugged state. In 2007, Alaska became the last state to adopt e-prescribing. And last July, then-Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt toured the state in an effort to highlight the uses of telehealth to improve healthcare access to the state’s far-flung residents.

According to the American Medical Association, Alaska has 2.06 physicians for every 1,000 patients, below the national average of 2.38.

“Here in Alaska, community and rural hospitals do not have the staffing capabilities to deliver advanced medical care,” said Providence CEO Al Parrish in a press release. “With the implementation of the eICU Program at Providence Alaska Medical Center, this enhanced medical service can now be provided locally to the sickest of patients. We will save additional lives with the eICU.”
 
“Implementation of the eICU Program is one more example of our continuous pursuit of clinical excellence,” added Roy Davis, chief medical officer for Providence. “Justice is a core value – equal access for all patients. ‘Getting the right patient the right treatment at the right time’ is the mantra for critical care. This program allows us to deliver that level of care right where they are – a significant benefit to the communities in Alaska.”

Staffed by a multidisciplinary critical care team, the eICU can monitor a remote patient’s vital signs, medications, test results, X-rays and other data. Clinical decision support tools enable the eICU to analyze those signs and alert medical staff on site to potential problems.

According to Philips VISICU, more than 200 hospitals around the world, serving more than 250,000 patients each year, have eICU programs up and running. Philips acquired VISICU roughly one year ago.

“Many telehealth initiatives today focus on improving diagnosis and treatment for chronic care conditions,” said Frank Sample, CEO of Philips VISICU.  “In telemedicine initiatives such as this, medicine and technology converge to protect the critically ill from debilitating and life threatening complications, while providing the healthcare system with a solution that is proven to expand access, reduce cost, and improve outcomes.”
 
Corrections to the story were made on March 10, 2009.