Expanding Critical Care with Emory eICU Partnership

Crisp Regional prides itself on being able to offer high quality care close to home, and a grant from the Department of Community Health to renew a partnership with Emory Hospital, is just the latest development in our efforts to do just that.

This partnership and grant funding renews a unique offering here at Crisp Regional: eICU coverage (Electronic Intensive Care Unit).

April Dukes, Chief Nursing Officer and VP of Patient Care Services, says they are currently lining up all the technology needed for this unique partnership with Emory. As she explained, the eICU partnership will link intensivist physicians as well as critical care nurses to the patients in Crisp Regional’s ICU. From 7:00 pm to 7:00 am each weekday and all day Saturday and Sunday, intensivist physicians at Emory will work to monitor trends in ICU patients and work with the staff physically there to make adjustments as needed.

While Crisp Regional does have two rotating hospitalists for the ICU working during the day who are also on call at night, Dukes explained that this partnership allows those physicians to get the rest they need after a 12-hour shift during the day and allows patients access to an elevated level of care during that time.

“We will have access to an intensivist physician and say their blood pressure, or heart rate, or any condition really, started trending in a poor direction overnight,” said Dukes. “We’re monitoring the patient, and we can pick up the phone and ask for help. Or if they notice a trend over night, they can tell us and intervene.”

This prevents, at least in many cases, staff at Crisp Regional from having to call the on-call physician who just worked all day, which she believes helps prevent turnover and burnout among those hospitalist positions.

Additionally, Dukes explained that although they won’t have access to an intensivist during the day from Emory, critical care nurses at Emory will still continue to monitor the patients throughout the day.

“The critical care nurses at Emory will still monitor our patients during the day, so that at night when the intensivist comes on at Emory, they would have those trends already in place,” said Dukes. “They would monitor our patients 24/7, but the intensivist can intervene at night because during the day, we have that hospitalist there to help take care of our patients.”

And Dukes said this relationship with critical care nurses at Emory is beneficial for nurses at Crisp Regional too.

“Their nurses are also a resource for our nurses,” said Dukes. “If our nurses have a concern about a medication of something to watch out for, that critical care nurse is a resource for our staff to give them tips and feedback on what to expect or what to watch for.”

And as Dukes explains, if your family member is in the hospital, this won’t affect your ability to communicate with the staff responsible for their care.

“You won’t really notice anything,” said Dukes. “We just inform the patients that at the same time you’re monitored here, you’re monitored at Emory with an intensivist level of coverage.” If something happens during the day, our doctor is going to be there, and they’re going to respond and offer whatever care is needed. And we do still have that doctor on call at night, should the patient needs something that requires hands-on care, but we can also call that intensivist from Emory. We can get their feedback, and they can give us direction during the night. They can log on and talk to you as a family member and say ‘Hey, I noticed your mom is getting more short of breath, here’s what we’re going to do and see how this goes for the next hour or so. I’m here. I’m watching. Do you have any questions?’ They would communicate with the family and ask questions, so just because they’re up on a TV screen doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with them.”

And as Dukes explains, she believes this partnership can help raise the level of care as well as family member’s ability to be invoved in their loved ones care.

“The main thing we want the community to know is that we make it a priority to focus on a quality of care here at Crisp Regional in a rural hospital that you would see at a big hospital like Emory,” said Dukes. “We want them to know that you don’t necessarily have to leave your hometown to receive that level of care. When you’re here, you’re in good hands. You’re receiving quality care because we can stretch out beyond the walls of Crisp Regional without ever leaving town.

“Logistically, we have families in our community that they may not even have a vehicle. If their family is transferred to Emory, they may not even have a way to get to Emory to be with their family member. But if they’re here in Cordele, they can logistically get here a lot easier and participate in their care and their healing and in decision making where if they’re transferred out of town, that makes it very difficult. While some patients can reach a level of care where if they need something, some type of treatment that we can’t perform here, then we would have to transfer them, but we want to be able to provide that high level of care here as close to their home as we possibly can.”