Susan Campbell, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for OSF Healthcare System recently announced that doctors William Tillis and Saurin Patel are leading the OSF eICU Program initiative along with Jennifer Hopwood, all of whom have many years of experience ranging from caring for patients in ICU settings to managing the caregivers. Dr. William Tillis will be the OSF eICU Medical Director. Dr. Saurin Patel will be the OSF eICU Clinical Director of Quality Performance Improvement. Jennifer Hopwood will be the OSF eICU Operations Director.

OSF HealthCare will be implementing the state-of-the-art eICU Program from Philips Healthcare for all 139 of its adult ICU beds. The purpose is to save lives, reduce complications, decrease length of ICU stays and better manage health care costs. There will be a monitoring center constructed in Peoria this spring with the OSF eICU activation of the 139 beds scheduled for June and July.

Studies have shown improved outcomes and decreased lengths of stay for patients in ICUs managed by intensivists (physicians trained as specialists in critical care). However, as there is a severe shortage of these specialized doctors in the U.S., many hospitals are unable to have critical care physicians on-site 24 hours a day. The eICU Program solves this problem.

"The OSF eICU Program will offer increased peace of mind to OSF patients and families as it will provide additional oversight from trained critical care specialists looking after patients in our ICUs at all times," said Dr. Tillis. "In addition, medical literature supports that the Philips eICU Program offers significant benefits in terms of quality, safety and financial performance."

"We are proud to be partnering with OSF Healthcare System whose demonstrated experience in providing high quality, coordinated care recently resulted in their being selected to participate as a Medicare Pioneer Accountable Care Organization," said Frank Sample, Vice President and General Manager for Philips Enterprise Patient Informatics Solutions. "We look forward to working with OSF to enable delivery of the highest quality care to the sickest patients across the region."

eICU® is a registered trademark of Philips.

Reporters are invited to the OSF eICU Program kick-off for OSF HealthCare leadership between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, January 24^th to meet and interview Doctors Tillis and Patel as well as Jennifer Hopwood and Susan Campbell. Specialists from Philips will also be available for interviews. The kick-off will be at the Spalding Pastoral Center, 419 NE Madison Street in Peoria, Illinois.