The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated shortfalls in the healthcare workforce, including well-trained and skilled ICU (intensive care unit) physicians. Critical care requires attentive, skilled staff to adequately treat patients in the ICU, who need to be monitored on a 24/7 basis. This shortage presented an urgent concern for the Apollo Hospitals Group (which manages 73 hospitals across India).

Apollo Hospitals Group scaled up its capacity to virtually monitor patients needing critical care. The group identified an innovative solution to meet this challenge: investment in electronic intensive care units (e-ICUs). Unlike a typical intensive care unit, in e-ICU patients do not need to be in the same hospital as their critical care physician. Instead, using high-definition audio and visual equipment, a critical care intensivist can virtually enter a hospital room and provide real-time support while evaluating a patient’s response to treatment.

Prior to participation in the e-ICU, all clinical staff required online training on how to use the electronic intensive care technology. Participants of the training program are monitored and mentored by Senior Critical Care Consultants. A 24/7 helpdesk is available for troubleshooting any technical issues.

The e-ICU technology helps to remotely monitor and aid in treating critical patients in ICUs. Although there were some initial setbacks, the e-ICUs have optimised the time of a limited pool of clinicians, cut the risk of COVID-19 transmission, and have accrued cost-efficiency savings (as no PPE is required for this model of care).

Going forward, we hope to sustain this model of care and extend e-ICU provision beyond the patients affected just by COVID-19, as part of a wider initiative to address shortfalls in critical care staff. Employing e-ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic has ensured that all patients connected to the Apollo network (especially those living in rural regions) can access quality care.

• It was a learning curve for staff unfamiliar with this model of critical care to get familiar and comfortable with the technologies required for the e-ICU.

• Lack of digital infrastructure in some hospitals impeded the efforts of expansion.