Share ThisChris Wise, DNP, RN, began his career in nursing more than 15 years ago. Before coming to Allegheny Health Network (AHN), he never imagined he’d care for intensive care patients virtually.
Now, he sees virtual care as the present and the future. As the director of nursing for the TeleICU, Dr. Wise manages a centrally located team of AHN intensivists, nurses and data assistants that virtually care for critically ill patients at six of the network's hospitals across western Pennsylvania.
The TeleICU is a virtual intensive care solution which combines innovative telehealth technology and the clinical expertise of AHN intensivists for 24/7 monitoring and management. Launched in October 2023, the TeleICU enables efficient and effective care through an infrastructure of real-time monitors, electronic medical records and two-way audio-visual conference.
“This capability provides a constant visualization of a patient’s vital signs, labs, physical exam notes and more,” says Amit Kaura, MD, FACP, FCCP, TeleICU medical director, AHN Wexford Hospital ICU medical director and vice chairman for the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. “Through proactive monitoring and predictive analytics, we can identify trends and decide if we need to intervene with a patient.”
Patients and bedside caregivers benefit from instant access to critical care experts and faster response times in emergencies.
“As a critical care nurse, working in the TeleICU has been an incredible experience,” says Amelia Sloss BA, RN, CCRN. “The TeleICU not only facilitates 24-hour critical care coverage for the smaller hospitals within the health system, but it is crucial in the early detection of hemodynamic instability and sepsis, decreasing mechanical ventilator days, and supporting the bedside team. Truly, the TeleICU has the ability to transform critical care for AHN and the patients we serve.”
The TeleICU is a significant example of the enterprise’s Living Health strategy to leverage digital technology, including virtual care options and remote medical devices, to bring convenient, high-quality health support and care to people where and when they need it, while also greatly improving the experience of AHN’s bedside caregivers.
“It’s a lot more convenient for the patient to stay closer to home. It also makes it easier for families to visit — which is a huge component for recovery in intensive care,” says Dr. Kaura. “I fully anticipate that patient, family and caregiver satisfaction will increase with TeleICU.”
To see the capability in action, check out the below video where Dr. Wise and Dr. Ashis Barad, pediatric gastroenterologist and AHN's chief digital information officer, share expert insights on the TeleICU program.
Chris Wise: As a system, we started doing more virtual interaction during COVID. The pandemic forced the enterprise to look at our delivery of care from a different perspective. We wanted to be able to utilize and leverage our current existing workforces and our policies and procedures to improve patient outcomes within our own region.
Dr. Ashis Barad: The TeleICU program at Allegheny Health Network is a program that’s live at six of our hospitals with a central command center that you see behind me, which allows us to be able to leverage more of our physician knowledge and nursing knowledge to all of our sites, regardless of geography.
Chris Wise: The whole idea of the TeleICU model is to be proactive, to be a second set of eyes and ears on those patients who are at our clinical sites, to allow the bedside nurse to focus more on providing their hands on care.
There is a button that is mounted in each wall that can be pressed by an onsite provider. It can be pressed by a patient’s family, that call immediately comes to the TeleICU. You can never take away the quality of care and the expertise the bedside clinician can provide.
Nurse: Hi, Julia. I just wanted to check in on you. I wanted to see what brought you into the hospital today.
Patient: I felt really dizzy and a little bit of short breath.
Nurse: Can I ask you to do a few things for me?
Bedside Nurse: Yeah, sure.
Chris Wise: The expectation is that our TeleICU physicians and nurses are proactively rounding, predicting and being able to use the software to intervene earlier.
Dr. Ashis Barad: The TeleICU program and all other virtual programs have absolutely changed the game of how we deliver care. Now there's an ability to provide the same nursing knowledge, to provide all that brain trust that they have, but in a different modality that doesn't require them to be on their feet the whole shift, they can be here and still pipe in and give that expertise that they have.
Chris Wise: It has been proven across the country to decrease length of stay to improve patient outcomes. So I'm thrilled that the enterprise has embraced this model of care so that we can improve here in our own region the population care outcomes.
We designed this program to be able to scale it.
Dr. Ashis Barad: It really allows us to think about staffing differently. Now this ability to have 24/7 access care to the top-quality physicians in our network at any moment's notice to be able to improve that care decision making and improve the care is really an incredible feat.
Chris Wise, DNP, RN, is the TeleICU director of nursing. In this role he collaborated with enterprise executive teams and critical care leaders to operationalize and successfully implement the TeleICU care model for more than 90 critical care beds within six AHN hospitals. He leads AHN intensivists, nurses and data assistants at AHN’s TeleICU command center.
Chris got his start in virtual care by implementing an on-demand virtual intensivist care model at West Penn Hospital.
A nurse by training, he’s held roles across leadership and education and brings clinical expertise in critical care, surgery, emergency medicine, urgent care and more.
Chris received his Doctor of Nursing Practice from Chatham University with a focus in executive leadership.
Ashis Barad, MD, is AHN’s chief digital information officer. He came to Pittsburgh in spring 2022 from Baylor Scott & White Health, a 52-hospital system based in Dallas, Texas. Most recently, Dr. Barad served as clinical lead for Baylor Scott & White’s Digital Health Office, managing the office’s general data analytics and spearheading the network’s digital health and virtual clinical strategies.
As chief digital information officer, Dr. Barad now leads AHN’s efforts to deploy technologies that extend the reach, access, and effectiveness of AHN’s clinical care delivery, enhancing both the patient and clinician experience relative to electronic health records, artificial-intelligence-powered data analytics, wearable devices, and other virtual tools and platforms.
He also guides AHN clinical informatics efforts and its MyChart optimization.
A pediatric gastroenterologist by training, Dr. Barad received his medical degree from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and completed a pediatrics residency at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. He completed a pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at Northwestern University.
He is happily married with two young children. His passion for medicine started when he developed typhoid fever at the age of 8 in rural India with no access to health care. He wants to bring wellness and health care to every corner of the U.S. and meet patients and members where they are.
Amit Kaura, MD, FACP, FCCP, is a critical care physician at Allegheny Health Network (AHN). He holds roles as medical director for the TeleICU and AHN Wexford Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He also serves as vice chairman for the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. He brings expertise in critical care ultrasound, hemodynamics, mechanical ventilation, sepsis, and septic shock.
Dr. Kaura completed his fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is board-certified in critical care medicine and internal medicine.
Dr. Kaura is passionate about providing compassionate and high-quality care to his patients. He is a skilled clinician and educator, and he is committed to using his expertise to improve the lives of his patients.
Amelia Sloss, BA, RN, CCRN, is a compassionate and experienced critical care nurse for AHN’s internal staffing team. As part of this role, she serves in AHN’s TeleICU where she collaborates with critical care physicians and caregivers at the bedside to virtually care for patients.
Previously, Amelia served as a nurse navigator at AHN's Care Connect, where she ensured seamless care coordination. Her prior experience includes nursing roles in the ICU at AHN Wexford Hospital, the medical-surgical ICU at West Penn Hospital and Progressive Care Unit at Allegheny General Hospital.
Amelia is currently pursuing her MSN in Executive Nurse Leadership & Healthcare Management at Duquesne University. She is a graduate of West Penn Hospital School of Nursing.
She can be found volunteering with Literacy Pittsburgh as an adult basic education tutor. She also supports Light of Life Rescue Mission.
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