Sentara Adds eICU® Technology to Fourth Hospital Patients at Sentara Leigh Hospital's Intensive Care Units Now Under Lifesaving Care November 17th, 2003 Norfolk, Virginia- November 17, 2003-Patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) at Sentara Leigh Hospital are the latest to come under the watchful eye of eICU® solution, the cutting edge technology Sentara pioneered that is saving lives. Highly advanced life monitoring equipment and computer software presently online at four Sentara Hospitals has produced the most dramatic reduction of intensive care mortality through the use of technology in the history of ICU care. Intensive care patients at Sentara Leigh Hospital, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Sentara Bayside Hospital and Sentara CarePlex Hospital are now continuously monitored and managed by intensivists who work online from a remote eICU® location when primary care physicians are not at the patient's bedside. Through an elaborate network of cameras, monitors and two-way communication links, doctors and critical care nurses at the eICU® command center make virtual rounds of patients. Intensivists can monitor the condition of patients, check vital signs and communicate with hospital staff, patients or family members. "This system has shown it can save the life of more than one patient per week in two separate intensive care units," says Steven A. Fuhrman, M.D., Sentara Medical Director for the eICU® center. "The eICU® system shows us each day what happens when you merge the best technology with the most qualified medical professionals." The eICU® technology by VISICU efficiently manages scarce intensivist resources while also helping to meet recently defined Leapfrog standards of quality care giving. The Leapfrog Group was formed by Fortune 500 companies and other large healthcare purchasers to monitor patient safety. Hospitals around the country are committed to meeting higher standards of care giving, including providing board certified intensivists to manage the ICU. The eICU® system has already been extremely successful in reducing mortality rates at other Sentara facilities. An independent study performed by Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young (CGEY) shows the eICU® solution reduced intensive care mortality rates at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital by 25% and shortened the average length of stay for these patients by 17%. This study also revealed that Sentara's per patient costs dropped $2,150 based on reduced patient expenses and increased ICU capacity. "Mortality rates plunged when our around the clock reaction time became a matter of seconds," says Rod Hochman, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Sentara Healthcare. "Nothing that we have seen to date has so dramatically altered the quality of care for intensive care patients." For more information, contact Ann Keffer with Sentara's Public Relations at (757) 594-1036 or visit our website at www.sentara.com. eICU® is a registered trademark of VISICU, Inc. Sentara Healthcare, a premier not-for-profit health care provider in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, is comprised of more than 70 sites of care including 6 acute care hospitals, a hospital for extended recovery, 2 outpatient care campuses, 7 nursing centers, 3 assisted living centers, and 25 primary care practices. Sentara also offers a full range of award-winning health coverage plans, home health and hospice services, physical therapy and rehabilitation services, mobile diagnostic vans, and ground and air medical transport services, including Nightingale-the region's only air ambulance service. Sentara was also the first in the nation to pioneer and develop eICU® solution, an advanced intensive care treatment system. Striving to improve the wellness of the community, Sentara continues to participate in national and international research trials as a means to increase the medical options available to patients well into the future. For the past six years, Sentara Healthcare has consistently ranked among the nation's top integrated health care networks as published in Modern Healthcare magazine. Garnering the No.1 position in 2001 and No. 2 in 2002 and 2003, Sentara is the only health care system on the East Coast to be ranked in the nation's top 10 all six years the survey has been conducted.