LAUSR

Learning Objectives: Saudi Arabia is one of the largest country in the Arab world. Delivering specialized health care in remote area is a big challenge that faces countries like Saudi Arabia. Receiving medical treatment is a fundamental right not only for urban people, but also for rural and nomadic people. Inequity in accessing health centers is a global issue in most of the countries. Reaching remote areas and provide health services for rural is one of the difficulties that face the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia. Limitation of intensivist is a major challenge worldwide. Adopting a Tele-ICU services can solve many problems in remote areas. Tele-ICU is a solution that proven by evidence base medicine that can provide small hospitals with an intensivist around the clock. The intensivist will be able to monitors the patients vitals, lab and radiology images to have a clear pictures of the patient condition. There are many resistance that usually came up with adopting new idea especially when it comes to technology and patient care. Purpose: This survey seek to understand if Tele-ICU is the proper service that can be introduced in remote areas to support both physician in decision making and managing critical patient remotely at their region. Methods: A Survey was conducted to determine the usefulness of the Tele-ICU service and if the primary physician noticed improvement post consultation. The survey was designed by the quality coordinator at KFS&RC to avoid Bias in data collection and analysis Results: Sixteen hospitals participate in the survey with 53 response from physicians. Most of the request were from physicians 74% with some request initiated from the family 17%. 98% of physician who used Tele-ICU service recommended using TeleICU services to their colleague. 88% of the physician noticed improvement in patient’s condition after the consultation. Conclusions: Initial findings indicated that Tele-ICU program is making a difference in regional hospitals and provide a second layer of safety in managing patients in the ICU. However, more rigorous methodology need to be implemented to determine the cost effectiveness of the program