SYLMAR, CA--Cincinnati's Christ Hospital recently became the first hospital in its region to implement VISICU's patented eICU Program, employing an extensive range of products from Xantech Commercial, a leader in the field of audio/video remote control and distribution for 40 years. The eICU Program combines early warning software and remote monitoring to connect off-site critical care physicians and nurses to ICU patients around the clock. The Christ Hospital's eICU Program, called Critical Connections, supplements existing ICU bedside care, allowing eICU and ICU teams to work together to provide an enhanced level of proactive care. The combination of early warning software and remote monitoring, along with doctor-patient videoconferencing, has been proven to reduce unnecessary complications, shorten the hospital length of stay and improve mortality rates.
This complex network of computers and sensors operates smoothly with a flexible intelligent remote control system, consisting of several products from Xantech, which were installed by Cincinnati-based CTS Technologies. Central to the system's design are Xantech's ISM4 Intelligent System Manager, CRMWIC Commercial Room Monitor/Web Intelligent Controller, 283M Blink-IR Mouse Emitter, SMMAG01 Magnetic Sensor Module and SMVID01 Video Sensor Module. As part of the eICU hardware, these Xantech units help monitoring physicians have complete control over patient observation and communication with on-site personnel. With the added functionality of Xantech products, the eICU Program vastly improves Christ Hospital's previous doctor-patient videoconferencing systems, which required two separate video monitors in each patient's room (one for conferencing, one for television).
With these prior systems, the dedicated conferencing monitors needed to stay "on" at all hours, creating unnecessary utility costs, not to mention the financial burden of extra television units, and increasing the possibility of the monitor being inadvertently turned off. Xantech products offer a solution to these problems by combining both television and conferencing onto one monitor. This is made possible with Xantech's newly-introduced ISM4 Intelligent System Manager, which can turn the monitor on, if necessary, and switch to videoconference mode, along with the CRMWIC Commercial Room Monitor/Web Intelligent Controller, which stores the TV information for retrieval post-conference. With Xantech's help, the eICU system cuts down on energy consumption and the video monitors that the hospital needs to buy, all the while offering a more reliable, finely-tuned life-saving solution.
- "We selected Xantech products because they are essential to the system's functionality, plus they are flexible and dependable while being cost-effective," stated Mark Cohea, CTS technologies director of technology business development. "Caring for critically ill patients leaves no room for error, and we can rely on Xantech products to provide exactly what the eICU Program needs in terms of reliability and control." Rick Seegull, Xantech Director of Business Development, stated, "We are very pleased to have been chosen by CTS Technologies to be an integral part of the eICU Program, which provides critical information to the physician and ultimately will help save lives. The eICU Program represents another way that technology is being used to augment traditional medical care, and it is noteworthy that Xantech is a key component." The Christ Hospital plans to expand its Critical Connections program to surrounding communities, in order to provide enhanced critical care coverage for ICU patients in other hospitals.
