There is an acute unmet need in critical care, with the number and acuity of patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) having increased significantly over the last decade. An ageing population, coupled with advances in medicine and a worsening shortage of specialists & nurses are driving the need to improve clinician workflow and patient safety. This in turn places an increased emphasis on clinical IT solutions In the US alone, 54,000 preventable deaths occur in ICUs despite a $67 billion p.a. spend. Clinician and nursing staff shortages mean that central stations are no longer manned, and so patient information and alarms must be sent to clinicians wherever they are. As a result, there has been a significant increase in the number of devices that generate alarms. This added noise pollution has led to patient safety concerns, as the need to identify which patient is at risk as early as possible remains critical. This combination of market factors is forcing an evolution in clinical services designed to improve critical care. Hospital administrations and their boards of directors are increasingly seeking ways to improve the quality of care and limit their operating costs. As a result, hospitals are increasing their spending on information technology solutions that improve patient safety while controlling costs. A significant window of opportunity exists for a clear leader to emerge in high acuity care transformation, as hospitals face a worsening situation and struggle to meet the challenge of improving patient care, managing staffing and controlling costs in the ICU. How can information technology improve patient monitoring?
Through the acquisition of VISICU, a pioneer in the remote monitoring and delivery of critical care, Philips can integrate the functionality offered by VISICU’s intensive care unit software into its patient monitoring products. This allows doctors and nurses to monitor more ICU patients 24/7 boosting hospital productivity, improving patient care and ultimately increasing hospital revenues. The investment in VISICU also directly supports and accelerates Philips’ Healthcare IT Strategy and builds on Philips’ recent acquisition of Emergin, the leader in clinical alarm management, expanding the capabilities of Philips Patient Monitoring solutions.
VISICU is a leader in the market for clinical IT systems that enable critical care medical staff to actively monitor ICU patients from remote locations. VISICU’s system, called the eICU Program, enables health systems to provide access to critical care specialists regardless of a patient’s geographical location, providing real time patient monitoring around the clock and advanced clinical support in ICUs.
The eICU Program allows doctors and nurses to remotely track ICU patients at various hospitals through monitors and cameras to monitor real-time patient data, current visual status, care plan, diagnostic results and treatment history for each patient. VISICU’s eICU Program has delivered significant reductions in patient mortality, length of stay, and complications while lowering ancillary ICU costs. The addition of VISICU’s clinical IT expertise will further strengthen Philips’ market leading position in patient monitoring systems in the hospital, bringing information to clinicians in the first ten feet of care, while streamlining workflow and providing support for automated regulatory and protocol compliance. By investing in clinical IT solutions like those offered by VISICU and Emergin, we believe that Philips is well positioned to offer highly attractive patient monitoring solutions that improve hospital productivity and patient outcomes. We believe that these investments will drive further growth in our patient monitoring business, given that burgeoning demands on hospitals will increasingly drive the need for effective IT solutions that ensure increased patient safety.
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