Top 4 Challenges of Physician Staffing in ICU

1. TOP 4 Challenges of Physician staffing in icu

2. Intensive care unit • Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in hospitals aim to provide an ideal setting to monitor and support critically ill patients. • Ideally, an ICU includes adequate intensivist staffing complemented with a multidisciplinary ICU care team and state-of-the-art intensive care facility for faster recovery and shorter length of stay (LOS). • It improves the probability of accurate and timely medical interventions which is critical to reduce the mortality rate and increase the patient recovery rate in ICUs.

3. LIST OF 4 PROMINENT CHALLENGES IN ICU PHYSICIAN STAFFING • Intensivists Shortage • Physician Burnout • Physician Staffing Cost • Non-ICU Intensivists

4. Intensivists shortage • A remote, Tele-ICU unit, employing an intensivist-led multidisciplinary ICU care team can support timely diagnosis and treatment of patients in ICUs. • Tele-ICU intensivists are experienced in diagnosing the critically of illness in patients based on access to far greater amounts of vital trends of data which reduces dramatically ICU complications. • The hospitals in the U.S face an acute shortage of full-time intensivists to provide 24/7 support to the intensive care units. • Tele-ICU solutions like Intercept TeleMed support the timely mobilization of intensivist-led ICU teams and other multidisciplinary support services for hospitals.

5. Physician burnout • An increasing number of intensivists and Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) such as Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Assistants (PAs) in intensive care units are reporting burnout as compared to other specialties in hospitals. • Healthcare organizations are faced with the challenge need to optimize their resources effectively and efficiently to provide better care. • Tele-ICUs leverages remote monitoring solutions like Intercept TeleMed to connect intensivists and multispecialty physicians from different locations to patients in ICUs 24/7 and they have a huge impact on the quality of healthcare in ICUs, especially in rural and remote parts of the country.

6. Physician staffing cost • The American College of Critical Care Medicine and the Leapfrog group advocate 24/7 intensivisit-staffed ICUs since they promote overall economic benefits and patient outcomes in hospitals. • However, an around-the-clock intensivist coverage incurred high ICU staffing costs for hospitals though it proved to be more cost-effective for high acuity, high volume intensive care units. • Telemedicine, especially Tele-ICU solutions like Intercept TeleMedcan help reduce the ICU staffing cost in hospitals. • Hospitals can achieve better revenue returns through 24/7 remote monitoring for critically ill patients with a network of remote intensivists and critical care team.

7. NON-ICU intensivists • ICU physicians might be required in emergency departments during unprecedented situations. • Likewise, a pulmonary-critical care medicine practitioner will have to travel to remote or rural hospitals which could be a part of national healthcare organization. • Tele-ICUs can help patients and hospitals benefit from full-time intensivists whose consistent clinical practice delivers better health outcomes and revenue returns. • They closely work with nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists and other physicians in hospitals on an ongoing basis based on clinical best practices and protocols.

8. Thank you • Source : Intercept TeleMed​ • http://www.intercepttelemed.com/​ • A Tele-ICU services company that is led by physicians who have an in-depth understanding of the problems and opportunities for improved outcomes within an ICU.​​ • Read more : http://www.intercepttelemed.com/top-4-challenges-of-physician-staffing-in-icu/