CROSSETT, Ark. – Ashley County Medical Center is partnering with Baptist Health eICUcare to give their patients an additional team of critical care specialists who will watch over them 24/7. The Crossett hospital will go live with their eICU care on Monday, Dec. 15, at noon.
A ribbon cutting-ceremony will take place at the go-live time to celebrate this new high tech monitoring system for patients in Crossett and the surrounding communities who need intensive care.
With a simple press of a button by the physicians or nurses at Ashley County Medical Center, the staff will be instantly joined at their patient’s bedside by Baptist Health’s experienced critical care team in Little Rock. The eICUcare team includes physicians and nurses who are specialized in critical care and trained to execute predefined plans or intervene in emergencies when a patient’s attending physician cannot be immediately present.
Each critical-care room with eICU technology is equipped with a camera, microphone, and speaker that enable staff in the control center to communicate with caregivers and the patient in real time. The two-way video and “cockpit-like sensors” of this advanced telemedicine technology enables the eICUcare staff to detect even the slightest change in the patient’s condition and communicate more effectively with the bedside team to reduce the time between problem identification and intervention.
Staffed round-the-clock, every day of the year, the Baptist Health eICUcare command center and its staff helps rural hospitals like Ashley County Medical Center provide state-of-the-art intensive care to its sickest patients.
Typically, eICUtechnology is used in emergency departments, surgical ICUs (including kidney transplants), trauma ICUs, cardiac surgery (including heart transplants and artificial hearts), medical ICUs, coronary care units, surgical step-downs, extended care hospitals and progressive care units. Hospitals across the country using eICU technology with critical care specialists have seen reductions in complications, reductions in mortality, and better outcomes for patients. At Ashley County Medical Center, the hospital has three rooms with the eICU care technology and three mobile carts.
As the leader in healthcare, Baptist Health has been delivering quality care to Arkansans for more than 80 years. And as the state’s most comprehensive healthcare system, Baptist Health provides more than 175 points of access including eight hospitals – all committed to delivering “All Our Best” to the people of Arkansas.