Sutter Health First in California to offer Life Saving eICU® Technology Plans Call for Roll-Out across Entire Health System August 13th, 2002 VISICU, Inc., the creator of the eICU®, an advanced solution that improves critical care outcomes and costs, announced today a contract with the 26-hospital Sutter Health organization, which is the first in California to implement the system. The eICU® is a centralized, remote patient management center that connects intensivists to patients in multiple ICUs using high-fidelity telemedicine and proprietary monitoring software. The eICU® is staffed around-the-clock by intensivists and critical care nurses who provide patient oversight when the attending physician is away from the bedside. The contract initially calls for an eICU® in Sacramento to be linked to 94 ICU beds from multiple hospitals in the region. This will be followed by two additional eICU®s in the Bay Area connecting to the remaining Sutter hospitals. Van R. Johnson, President and CEO of Sutter Health, commented on the patient safety value of the eICU®, "For a healthcare organization, there is no more important goal than the safety and care of our patients. Studies show that full-time intensivist coverage for ICU patients dramatically saves lives, but the challenge is the nationwide shortage of these physicians. The eICU® provides a comprehensive patient safety net--helping us to expand access and availability to intensivist monitoring for community physicians and their patients, which will enable Sutter Health to improve patient safety, while setting the standard for California." Frank T. Sample, VISICU President and CEO stated, "We look forward to partnering with Sutter Health and doing our part to help this world-class organization enhance its care delivery while fighting the war against medical errors." Sample added, "The eICU® Solution is the first technology to enable hospitals to meet the Leapfrog Group's ICU patient care safety standards and we are pleased to continue our expansion of this offering to patients in California and across the country." About VISICU, Inc. VISICU, Inc. is a private company founded in 1998 by two intensivist physicians that is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The VISICU eICU® solution offers an innovative way for hospitals to standardize care processes and leverage the scarce number of intensivists while meeting Leapfrog quality standards. From a centralized and remote eICU®, intensivists and nurse's care for patients using VISICU's eCareManager™ technology, which provides air traffic control-like monitoring of patients by electronically connecting the "patient to the doctor". Outfitted with a VISICU state-of-the-art network and database, clinicians use the systems' high-fidelity telemedicine technology and proprietary Smart AlertsT to proactively manage patients across multiple hospitals. A Cap-Gemini E&Y study at Sentara Healthcare has proven the systems full clinical and financial benefits, prompting the Chair of the Leapfrog Group's Standards Committee to state, "Sentara's successful implementation of its eICU® demonstrates that hospitals need not be constrained by shortages in intensivists if they are visionary in their use of clinical information technology". VISICU won the 2001 Healthcare Informatics and Technology Award and is currently the only ICU technology solution to enable hospitals to meet the Leapfrog Group's patient care safety standards. For more information please visit www.visicu.com. About Sutter Health Sutter Health is one of California's leading not-for-profit networks of community-based health care providers, delivering high-quality care in more than 100 Northern California communities. Sutter Health is the regional leader in infant deliveries, neonatology, orthopedics, pediatrics and cancer care services. Sutter Health supports more than two dozen locally-run acute care hospitals and physician organizations, as well as medical research facilities, region-wide home health, hospice and occupational health networks, and long-term care centers.