Support Grows as PBMC Moves Toward eICU Launch
Chief of PBMC Medical Affairs Talks to
EMS Personnel About eICU June 26

Pen Bay Healthcare has raised almost $220,000 for the electronic intensive care initiative set to launch at Penobscot Bay Medical Center next month.

Through the work of the PBH development office, PBMC was recently awarded a grant of $183,000 from the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program, in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development office. The balance of the funds raised for the eICU, as it's called, came from the Pen Bay Healthcare Shall We Dance Gala, held May 3 at the Owls Head Transportation Museum.

"The gala, with its 15 financial sponsors and 105 in-kind sponsors, is our most important community fundraiser each year," said Staci Coomer, vice president of development, marketing and communications at Pen Bay Healthcare. "It's a fun event which brings people together to raise money for a good cause. The development office's success with the federal grant is a great complement to the support PBMC has in our local communities."

The eICU is a state-of-the-art long-distance monitoring system which will give the medical and nursing staffs access to a team of intensive care doctors and nurses 24 hours a day through the MaineHealth VitalNetwork in Portland, a division of MaineHealth. It is expected to launch at PBMC on June 10.

On June 26, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Dr. Dana Goldsmith, vice president of medical affairs at PBMC, will be discussing the eICU with the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) community and the public in Conference Room C in the Pen Bay Physicians' Building. EMS personnel will be able to receive continuing education credits; light refreshments will be served. This event is being coordinated in conjunction with Midcoast EMS.

"The eICU is an added level of critical care, delivered locally at PBMC," said Goldsmith. "EMS personnel are often the ones bringing patients to the hospital with the kinds of injuries or illnesses requiring this kind of care. Their understanding of this system can help us all provide better care for patients."

The e-ICU uses advanced voice, data and video technology, along with early warning software, to enable clinicians at the bedside to co-manage patients at PBMC with the same intensive care team that manages patients at Maine Medical Center.

The e-ICU program doesn't replace the patient's physician. Instead, it provides another set of eyes to monitor patients and track vital signs, test results and conditions to help busy ICU staff, including those that lack around-the-clock coverage by intensivists, as critical care physicians are sometimes called.

MaineHealth VitalNetwork is staffed by three administrators, 18 part-time critical care nurses, nine nursing secretaries, and 27 part-time critical care physicians or intensivists whose specialty is caring for very ill patients.

MaineHealth is a family of leading, high-quality providers and other healthcare organizations dedicated to ensuring their communities are among the healthiest in America. Ranked among the nation's top 40 integrated healthcare delivery networks, MaineHealth's member organizations include Maine Medical Center, Miles Memorial Hospital, St. Andrews Hospital, Stephens Memorial Hospital, Spring Harbor Hospital, HomeHealth Visiting Nurses, NorDx, Synernet, and Maine Physician Hospital Organization. Affiliates of MaineHealth include MaineGeneral Medical Center, Mid Coast Hospital, Southern Maine Medical Center, St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, and Penobscot Bay Medical Center.