Innovations in Tele-Critical Care Nursing During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

For decades, tele-critical care (TCC) programs have provided expert population surveillance with standardized clinical interventions for critically ill patients. The COVID-19 pandemic created massive strains on critical care resources. For this report, standard questions were used to solicit COVID-19 pandemic workflow and service modifications from a network of TCC leaders to describe the rapid expansion of TCC-supported services during the pandemic. In this article, leaders from 7 TCC programs report on the effective use of services to support changing hospital needs during the pandemic in areas such as clinical education, personal protective equipment stewardship, expansion of virtual care, and creative staffing models, among others.

Telemedicine Critical Care-Mediated Mortality Reductions in Lower-Performing Patient Diagnosis Groups: A Prospective, Before and After Study.

OBJECTIVES: Studies evaluating telemedicine critical care (TCC) have shown mixed results. We prospectively evaluated the impact of TCC implementation on risk-adjusted mortality among patients stratified by pre-TCC performance. DESIGN: Prospective, observational, before and after study. SETTING: Three adult ICUs at an academic medical center. PATIENTS: A total of 2,429 patients in the pre-TCC (January to June 2016) and 12,479 patients in the post-TCC (January 2017 to June 2019) periods. INTERVENTIONS: TCC implementation which included an acuity-driven workflow targeting an identified "lower-performing" patient group, defined by ICU admission in an Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation diagnoses category with a pre-TCC standardized mortality ratio (SMR) of greater than 1.5. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome was risk-adjusted hospital mortality. Risk-adjusted hospital length of stay (HLOS) was also studied. The SMR for the overall ICU population was 0.83 pre-TCC and 0.75 post-TCC, with risk-adjusted mortalities of 10.7% and 9.5% (p = 0.09). In the identified lower-performing patient group, which accounted for 12.6% (n = 307) of pre-TCC and 13.3% (n = 1671) of post-TCC ICU patients, SMR decreased from 1.61 (95% CI, 1.21-2.01) pre-TCC to 1.03 (95% CI, 0.91-1.15) post-TCC, and risk-adjusted mortality decreased from 26.4% to 16.9% (p < 0.001). In the remaining ("higher-performing") patient group, there was no change in pre- versus post-TCC SMR (0.70 [0.59-0.81] vs 0.69 [0.64-0.73]) or risk-adjusted mortality (8.5% vs 8.4%, p = 0.86). There were no pre- to post-TCC differences in standardized HLOS ratio or risk-adjusted HLOS in the overall cohort or either performance group. CONCLUSIONS: In well-staffed and overall higher-performing ICUs in an academic medical center, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation granularity allowed identification of a historically lower-performing patient group that experienced a striking TCC-associated reduction in SMR and risk-adjusted mortality. This study provides additional evidence for the relationship between pre-TCC performance and post-TCC improvement.

A multicenter population-based effectiveness study of teleintensive care unit-directed ventilator rounds demonstrating improved adherence to a protective lung strategy, decreased ventilator duration, and decreased intensive care unit mortality.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The purpose of the study is to determine if teleintensive care unit (ICU)-directed daily ventilator rounds improved adherence to lung protective ventilation (LPV), reduced ventilator duration ratio (VDR), and ICU mortality ratios. METHOD USED: A retrospective observational longitudinal quarterly analysis of adherence to low tidal volume LPV (<7.5 mL/kg predicted body weight; Pao2/fraction of inspired oxygen<300), ventilator duration, and ICU mortality ratios (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV-adjusted). The teleICU practice used Philips (Andover, MA) VISICU eCareManagerTM (Andover, MA) platform, providing ICU care and process improvement. RESULTS: Before ventilator rounds implementation, there was wide variation in hospital adherence to low tidal volume (29.5±18.2; range 10%-69%). Longitudinal improvement was seen across hospitals in the 3 Qs after implementation, reaching statistical significance by Q3 postimplementation (44.9±15.7; P<.002 by 2-tailed Fisher exact test), maintained at 2 subsequent Qs (48% and 52%; P<.001). Ventilator duration ratio also showed preimplementation variability (1.08±.34; range 0.71-1.90). After implementation, absolute and significant mean VDR reduction was observed (0.92±.28; -15.8%, P<.05). Intensive care unit mortality ratio demonstrated longitudinal improvement, reaching significance after the Q3 postimplementation (0.94 vs 0.67; P<.04), and this was sustained in the most recent Q analyzed (0.65; P<.03). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of teleICU-directed ventilator rounds was associated with improved and durable adherence to LPV and significant reductions in both VDR and ICU mortality.