Advanced ICU Care intensivist and medical director Dr. Dellice Dickhaus shared her experience as a tele-ICU provider in a televised report on Fox 13 News in Tampa. The report by Dr. Joette Giovinco for WTVT covered three examples of telemedicine: tele-ICU, tele-stroke, and remote doctor visits.
In a remote interview conducted at partner Florida Hospital Carrollwood, which is part of the Adventist Health System (now AdventHealth), Dr. Dickhaus highlighted the role of tele-ICU technology in enabling doctors to assess patients and provide care from afar. Not only do connected systems provide the tele-ICU physician access to all the patient data that would be available in the hospital room, but the two-way high-definition video capability enables very specific assessments. Seeing the patient “makes all the difference in the world. Having someone tell you that a patient is short of breath means something different when you can actually see the patient and judge the degree of the shortness of breath,” noted Dr. Dickhaus. This combination of technology and the medical expertise of an intensivist specially trained in critical care enables life-saving telemedicine treatment for the most critically ill patients.
Dr. Ashok Modh, ICU medical director for Florida Hospital Carrollwood, lauded the role of tele-ICU in caring for patients. “It’s a small ICU so I cannot have (an intensivist) here 24 hours a day.” Nurses at the bedside access the tele-ICU system around the clock, boosting quality of care for patients.
To read a summary of the coverage or view the video, click here.
