Remote 'eye in the sky' keeping tabs on VA hospital patients

A team of doctors and nurses are transforming the way the Veterans Affairs Medical Center cares for patients in its intensive care units by tracking them remotely from a new Tele-ICU center in the Minneapolis hospital. Last summer, the VA became the first hospital in the Twin Cities to start a virtual ICU, which now serves as a hub for seven regional hospitals. In December, the Fairview system launched a similar project at five of its Minnesota hospitals. From a bank of computers in Minneapolis, nurses can tell if someone in the Iowa City VA is having trouble breathing, someone in Omaha has an irregular heartbeat, or someone in Spokane is going into kidney failure.