MUSC tele-ICU program provides remote ICU care to eight South Carolina hospitals

Physician viewing ICU monitors.
Physician viewing ICU monitors.

The MUSC Health Tele-ICU Operations Center delivers 24/7, continuous patient monitoring of partner hospital ICU patients by MUSC Health and Hicuity Health intensivists, advanced practice providers, and critical care nurses.

The tele-ICU is a transformational program that uses proactive technologies and two-way audiovisual communication to enable intensivists, critical care nurses, and other critical care team specialists to collaborate in order to provide remote ICU care. Some hospitals use tele-ICU to gain access to intensivists, and others use the service for an additional layer of critical care support. System alerts produced by sophisticated algorithm software that inform remote tele-ICU physicians and nurses of important trends in patient condition, enabling proactive clinical decision making and early identification of potential problems.  

Tele-ICU Chart 

The Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine provides key leadership for the tele-ICU program where Dee Ford, M.D., professor of Medicine, is medical director. Currently, there are eight South Carolina hospitals enrolled in tele-ICU program with plans to expand in the future.

The Tele-ICU and ICU Innovations Program was the proud recipient of the SC Telehealth Program of Excellence, which was awarded by the Governor in 2020.