Like other specialties, critical care teams can use telemedicine. But some ICU doctors (also called intensivists) use it differently than other doctors.
TeleICU, part of the UPMC Acute Care Operations Center, is a provider-to-provider telemedicine service.
Doctors and staff working in the ICU who aren't intensivists use telehealth for consults with doctors who are.
Even though patients aren't the ones using this video technology, they still benefit from it.
TeleICU started in March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
More people were going on breathing machines (ventilators). The UPMC hospitals taking care of them didn't always have an intensivist in the ICU during the night.
If ICU staff needed a consult, they would have to wake up the intensivist, who had just worked a long shift.
The telehealth program gives attending doctors, nurses, and other non-intensivist staff prompt access to an ICU doctor at night. That way, the intensivist who worked all day in the ICU can rest and be ready for the next shift.
At first, many of the health care working using telehealth were caring for Covid patients. ICU providers now use the video service for non-Covid patients as well.
UPMC's teleICU isn't run by 1 hospital. Instead, doctors from many departments work together to provide their expertise virtually.
Hospitals throughout the UPMC system can leverage teleICU when they need critical care expertise that they don't have locally.
TeleICU offers patients and their loved ones peace of mind.
If your loved one is in an ICU without a night intensivist, teleICU offers:
Your health information, right at your fingertips. Select MyUPMC to access your UPMC health information. For patients of UPMC-affiliated doctors in Central Pa, select UPMC Central Pa Portal. Patients of UPMC Cole should select the UPMC Cole Connect Patient Portal.
The portal for all UPMC patients EXCEPT those in Central Pa.
The portal for UPMC patients in Central Pa.
The portal for UPMC Cole patients receiving inpatient care.
