More Virtual Hospital expansion plans are under way, as the Australia's healthcare system braces for an enormous surge of coronavirus patients, potentially overwhelming hospital capacity.
Caretaker wireless vital signs monitor for remote patient monitoring. (Credit: Caretaker Medical / PRNewswire)
More Virtual Hospital expansion plans are under way, as the Australia’s healthcare system braces for an enormous surge of coronavirus patients, potentially overwhelming hospital capacity.
Caretaker Medical, a global leader in Wireless Patient Monitoring, today announced that Australia’s first ‘virtual hospital’, is deploying the Caretaker Remote Monitoring platform for surveillance of COVID-19 patients in their homes to help reduce the surge capacity on the Australian healthcare system.
Australia’s’ first virtual hospital program has been the brainchild of Professor Rod McClure, Dean of Medicine at the University of New England, and public health expert. Professor McClure spent several years as a director at the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention and has worked with similar virtual hospitals in America.
“With the increasing pressure on hospital emergency and ICU departments and their front-line staff, we needed a way to address this pandemic and we needed to take action now.” This issue has become global overnight, and we need to access services when patients are in isolation,” he said. “The systems that support virtual access to services are not there yet, however the technology is and now we are deploying it.”
Professor McClure added, “The Caretaker wireless devices will be used to monitor patients in their homes who have moderate symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, and will continuously track their vital signs, including heart rate, temperature, oxygen saturation, beat-by-beat blood pressure and breathing. A team of doctors, supported by artificial intelligence technology, will continuously monitor their status, and if their conditions worsen, we will bring them into the hospital for emergency care.”
Jeff Pompeo President and CEO of Caretaker Medical commented, “With Caretaker’s wire-free ability to monitor patients remotely, and the forward thinking from Professor McClure to help Australia with this global pandemic, we will help improve hospital surge capacity and enable medical staff remain safely distanced from COVID-19 patients while continuously monitoring vital signs. Continuous “Beat by Beat” Blood Pressure, Respiration Rate and other vitals are early indications of patient deterioration, and the Caretaker device can trigger faster interventions that save lives. Caretaker brings “ICU Quality” patient monitoring to all points of care, viewable from anywhere in the world without restricting patient mobility.”
Professor McClure had been refining his idea for years as a way of providing better healthcare to regional areas. But the sudden need to care for potentially thousands of coronavirus patients – overwhelming hospitals across the nation – has led him to roll the Virtual Hospital project out now with full support of the University of New England.
More Virtual Hospital expansion plans are under way, as the Australia’s healthcare system braces for an enormous surge of coronavirus patients, potentially overwhelming hospital capacity. It is clear that there is an urgent need to find safe ways to keep non-critical patients out of hospital and in the comfort of their own home, and Caretaker Medical is pleased to be part of the solution.
Source: Company Press Release