The Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) https://www.health.mil Tele-Critical Care (TCC) Programs have extended Tele-Critical care capacity to the point of need especially to community hospitals and smaller intensive care units in remote locations.
DHA was successful in expanding the Joint Tele-Critical Care Network (JTCCN) in 2020. Today, critical care physicians also known as intensivists, and critical care nurses at three hub sites are treating patients at a growing number of spoke sites worldwide.
According to U.S. Navy Capt. (Dr.) Konrad Davis, Military Health System (MHS) Director, Tele-Critical Care, “ Once fully deployed, the JTCCN will enable intensivists to monitor hundreds of intensive care unit beds simultaneously through a setup conceptually similar to how air traffic control systems ensure that planes safely reach their destinations. The system also tracks and analyzes vital signs, lab results, progress notes, and other real time data, to help providers identify patients at risk and then intervene to improve outcomes.
In response to the pandemic, the JTCCN added seven new spoke site hospitals during 2020, nearly doubling the number of participating locations. In 2020, the JTCCN provided over 2,200 days of ICU coverage to 432 patients in 109 ICU beds spread across 15 spoke site hospitals. The JTCCN plans to add one additional spoke site hospital in calendar year 2021.
DHA is also working with the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, academia, and industry to develop the National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network (NETCCN) to expand capabilities and capacity.
One NETCCN prototype has been used in a civilian hospital in Guam, since August 2020, when COVID-19 cases spiked more than 200 percent their normal volume which outstripped local resources.
At that time, the hospital in Guam contacted FEMA which then coordinated with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) to make it possible for DHA to share a NETCCN mobile technology solution to enable the JTCCN to provide cybersecure and on demand consultative support to monitor critically ill civilian patients.
The Defense Department (DOD) https://defense.gov is also pursuing a partnership with the Veterans Administration (VA) https://www.va.gov to create a single federal tele-critical care network for all U.S. forces globally.
This network would enable any DOD or VA hub site to provide tele-critical care to any of the 1,700 VA or 400 DOD ICU beds. The final goal is to have a completely interoperable system between the two largest users of tele-critical care in the U.S. government.