Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines is the first Iowa hospital equipped with a new life-saving approach to intensive care – an eICU®.

Through eICU Connect, Mercy intensive care physicians and nurses are able to support existing bedside care by providing 24-hour monitoring from a remote center.  

Mercy’s eICU uses a sophisticated system of computer interfaces and two-way videoconference links that allow intensive care physicians and nurses to make “virtual” rounds of critical-care patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week from a remote center.  The eICU team monitors patients in Mercy’s ICU, cardiac/trauma ICU and critical care units checking vital signs, EKGs, ventilators, X-ray and lab data, and communicating closely with bedside physicians, hospital staff and patients.

eICU software monitors trends and detects early changes in a patient’s condition often avoiding a potentially life-threatening complication.  eICU programs across the nation have been shown to save lives, reduce complications and shorten the time a patient is in the ICU, drastically cutting the cost of a hospital stay.

This sophisticated approach to care is provided by Mercy Health Network and is currently active at two central Iowa hospitals (Mercy’s main campus and Mercy Capitol) as well as the intensive care unit at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa.  

The technology behind Mercy’s eICU is provided by VISICU Inc., the industry leader in the development of the electronic intensive care unit.  eICU is a registered trademark of VISICU, Inc.