Help during the pandemic for overwhelmed, overworked intensive care unit (ICU) nurses at some health systems came in the form of experienced tele-ICU nurses working remotely to support on-site colleagues as they cared for COVID-19 patients.

Nurses and a physician at Atrium Health described how they revved up an existing tele-ICU system to meet increased ICU demands during the pandemic in a paper published in August in Critical Care Nurse.

Atrium Health has had a tele-ICU system, which it calls the virtual critical care (VCC) unit, in its hospitals and network of ICUs throughout the Carolinas since 2013.

The VCC uses real-time, two-way audio and high-definition video communication to critical care beds.

Mobile carts deliver the virtual care in two of the system’s emergency departments. And the pre-pandemic VCC team included more than 80 board-certified tele-intensivists and 40 board-certified critical care nurses.

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