Health First Hospitals are the First in the Southeast to Offer eICU® Technology Proactive Care Technology to be offered to ICU Patients in Brevard County November 13th, 2003 Brevard County, FL - Holmes Regional Medical Center, Cape Canaveral Hospital, and Palm Bay Community Hospital, all Health First facilities, will be the first in the Southeast to offer eICU® technology to help care for critical care patients. A combination of telemedicine, software, and electronic monitoring technology, the eICU® system will provide Health First's critical care physicians and nurses the ability to monitor intensive care unit (ICU) patients at the three Health First hospitals while off-site. From a centralized eICU® location, intensivists and nurses will monitor ICU patients through a high-fidelity telemedicine network that has been compared to air traffic control. The technology will enable specialists to keep an even closer eye on critical care patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "We continually search for new ways to achieve our mission of providing quality health services to our community," said Mike Means, Health First president and CEO. "The eICU® solution will enable us to provide our critical care patients with the very best technology available for patient safety." With the eICU® technology, intensivists and critical care nurses will assess patients around-the- clock via in-room cameras while watching screens that show vital sign data, laboratory results, and complete electronic medical records. "These high-tech patient support systems are the future of health care. Health First is proud to be at the forefront," said James Palermo, MD, vice president of Quality Management/Chief Quality Officer for Health First. "Critical care nurses at the bedside will be able to pick up the phone and immediately discuss a patient situation with an eICU® physician." Palermo added, "This technology will help decrease patient complications, mortality rates, and enable shorter hospital stays for our critical care patients." Brian Rosenfeld and Michael Breslow, both MDs from Johns Hopkins University, developed the telemedicine concept in 1997 and formed VISICU Inc., a Maryland-based company that installs the eICU® workstations, which consist of four video monitors and a telephone. The eICU® technology will be integrated into all Health First facilities by the Summer of 2004. For more information, contact Lisa Crites, Health First media relations specialist, at (321) 434-4364. eICU® is a registered trademark of VISICU, Inc.