Teleradiology to the intensive care units at Shands Hospital

The clinicians at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida were frustrated by the filmbased system, which served them in taking care of their patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICU). Frequently, they would come to the radiology department three to six floors below their respective ICU only to be stymied by the inability to find a study that was needed for patient care. This led to much consternation and outright animosity towards the personnel in the radiology department. On the other hand, the radiologists were exasperated by the missing films and lack of cooperation of the ICU team of physicians and nurses. The common denominator was an inefficient communications system for sending chest and abdominal films to the ICUs. A solution was proposed, tested, and installed by DuPont. Our initial experience with this system was reported.1 We have now modified and extended this system to all of the ICUs, which represents the basis for this report. The clinical review system (CRS) was initially placed in the medical ICU and very shortly thereafter expanded to serve all six ICUs at Shands Hospital. These include surgical, neurosurgical, cardiothoracic, pediatric and neonatal ICUs. Approximately 30,000 portable examinations are done each year in these areas.