Hicuity Health and Covenant Health Launch Tele-ICU Shared Services

Partnership Includes Opening of New High-Acuity Telemedicine Clinical Care Center in Knoxville

  Hicuity Health, the nation’s leading provider of high-acuity telemedicine services, and Covenant Health, a not-for-profit healthcare system providing comprehensive services in East Tennessee, announced the opening of their Knoxville telemedicine center and the introduction of tele-ICU services. The dual launches represent the first phase of a system-wide deployment of a strategic critical care telehealth collaboration between Hicuity and Covenant Health, which is the first healthcare delivery system in the Knoxville area to offer tele-ICU services. The collaboration leverages Hicuity Health’s technology and operating infrastructure, proprietary HUB workflow management platform, and multiple existing clinical operations centers within a shared services relationship. The partnership will deliver tele-ICU care to critically ill patients across Covenant’s nine acute care hospitals through a tele-ICU care delivery team comprised of both Hicuity Health and Covenant Health clinicians. The shared services approach to tele-ICU care enables Covenant Health to benefit from Hicuity Health’s significant investment and experience in cutting-edge telemedicine technology, operational know-how, and telemedicine-adept clinical staff. Hicuity Health has developed this expertise through 15+ years of service and now serves more than 100 hospitals across the U.S. “We are pleased to launch this exciting new tele-ICU initiative,” said Jim VanderSteeg, President and CEO of Covenant Health. “Our health system is committed to putting our patients first across all aspects of our delivery system. This is especially vital in our critical care areas, where patients facing complex medical conditions need the highest level of care. Through our partnership with Hicuity Health, tele-ICU will allow Covenant Health providers and Hicuity’s medical staff to collaborate seamlessly using state-of-the-art technology to provide excellent care for our most critically ill patients.” The partnership features tele-ICU services powered by Hicuity Health’s HUB platform technology, a proprietary software platform that enables customized, high-volume telehealth monitoring and workflow management. This implementation anticipates a blended tele-ICU care team that supports the patient’s bedside care team, includes medical staff from both organizations, and offers the possibility of expanding and extending the relationship to include multiple telemedicine service lines. “The Hicuity Health team is honored to begin our system-wide telemedicine partnership with Covenant Health with the launch of tele-ICU care,” said Lou Silverman, CEO of Hicuity Health. “This shared services model leverages the combination of Hicuity Health’s highly flexible HUB technology, extensive investment in our ‘always-on’ high-reliability infrastructure, and the capacity for our combined clinical staffing to enable Covenant Health to deliver telemedicine applications with confidence across its facilities. We look forward to completing this rollout and to an extended and expanding relationship with Covenant Health.”