Hicuity Health, the nation’s leading provider of high‐acuity telehealth services, has partnered with Covenant Health, a not‐for‐profit healthcare system that includes Methodist Medical Center and other medical centers in Tennessee, to form a strategic regional critical care telehealth collaboration, according to a press release.
As an expansion of intensive care services, the two organizations will launch a tele‐ICU initiative that features a full complement of technology‐enabled critical care resources covering the health system’s member hospitals. The relationship also will include the establishment of a new tele‐ICU operations center in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the opportunity for Covenant Health to extend tele‐ICU care across the East Tennessee region.
As explained on the Hicuity Health website, the Hicuity Health intensivist physicians operate from centralized operations centers, where they and their clinical teams constantly monitor patient data, including vital signs, medications, labs and clinical status. Because proactive data management tools identify problems before they become urgent, the Hicuity Health team can work alongside hospital staff to address situations immediately, before complications develop. The team also uses two-way video to enable face-to-face consultations with bedside physicians and nurses day or night or with patients or their families.
“Covenant Health’s commitment to quality and excellence led the health system to explore the introduction of centralized, technology‐enabled intensive care for critically ill patients to augment and support care provided at the bedside. During the evaluation process, Covenant Health affirmed the clinical, operational and technical experience that Hicuity Health has established in its nearly 15 years of providing telemedicine services. With this partnership, Covenant Health will be able to leverage Hicuity Health’s expertise and capabilities honed through partnering with more than 100 hospitals across the U.S. and delivering care to over a half‐million tele‐ICU patients to date,” a news release stated.
“We are pleased to partner with Hicuity Health to begin this exciting new tele‐ICU initiative,” said Jim VanderSteeg, President and CEO of Covenant Health in the news release. “Our health system is committed to putting our patients first across all aspects of our delivery system. This is especially vital in our critical care areas, where patients facing complex medical conditions need the highest level of care. The partnership between Hicuity Health and our Covenant Health medical staff will enable our teams to collaborate seamlessly using state‐of‐ the‐art technology to provide excellent care for patients in our intensive care units across Covenant Health’s hospital network.”
Instrumental in Covenant Health’s decision was Hicuity Health’s ability to establish a Knoxville clinical operations center, as well as the company’s HUB platform technology, the news release stated. This proprietary software platform enables customized, high‐volume telehealth monitoring and workflow management across multiple locations. The HUB platform also will allow Covenant Health providers to partner with clinical staff working in any of Hicuity Health’s nine care operations centers in the United States.
“Hicuity Health appreciates the privilege that our selection by Covenant Health represents and we look forward to working with the Covenant team to enable tele‐ICU care system‐wide,” said Lou Silverman, CEO of Hicuity Health. “The scale and structure of this telemedicine partnership illustrate the dedication of both organizations to forward‐thinking approaches to delivering quality care while also highlighting the bright future of telemedicine and tele‐ICU specifically.”
