Readiness Assessment of Tele-ICU implementation in Technical and Human Aspects in Teaching Hospitals with ICUs Affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2015

Tele-ICU is a solution to shortage of intensive care specialists providing simultaneously health care services in several ICUs. The study aimed to determine readiness of Tele-ICU implementation in technical and human aspects in teaching hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS).

This research was a descriptive analytical study. Samples included 16 anesthesiologists and 120 nurses having experience in ICU, that were chosen through convenient sampling. This method was not conducted for information technology (IT) officials due to their society limitations, and census was performed, instead. For data gathering, questionnaires and checklists were used. Content and face validity were confirmed by IUMS health information technology (HIT) and computer professors. The average correlation reliability coefficient for physicians-nurses and IT officers questionnaires were 0.93 and 0.96, respectively. Technical checklists were completed through researcher's direct observation. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, percentage) and inferential statistics methods (t-test, ANOVA) by SPSS software.

Given infrastructure-hardware facilities, technical readiness were assessed as moderate (mean positive responses was 54.7%). The level of knowledge was measured with seven questions, and third quartile (above 75%) of correct answers was considered as desired knowledge that included 56.6 % of samples. The problems and barriers of implementation of this project from the perspective of samples were found to be "high cost to set up and resources constraints" as main obstacle to set up tele-ICU with 65.2%.

Improving technical infrastructures, developing comprehensive strategic plan and the deployment of tele-ICU standards and creating electronic record, organizing training courses to raise knowledge and promote culture of applying tele-technologies are recommended.