INITIATIVES
The WVU Critical Care and Trauma Institute regularly reviews our vision, goals, and objectives to improve, enhance, and develop cutting-edge programs and practice management techniques. As a result, we frequently add new initiatives and programs.
- Adult Rapid Response Team
- Virtual-ICU
- Comprehensive Critical Care Training and Education Program (CCCTEP)
- ICU Follow up
- Critical Care and Trauma Grand Rounds
Adult Rapid Response Team
Since its inception in late 2018, the Adult Rapid Response Team has quickly made a positive impact across our facilities in many areas. The team is comprised of ICU-level clinicians and consists of an advanced practice professional, a stat registered nurse, and an ICU-trained respiratory therapist. The team responds to patients suffering from physiological deterioration, or at the request of bedside nurses or family members.
The Adult Rapid Response Team also acts as an ICU-level consult service for our floor and step-down level patients, as well as to some of our specialty and outpatient clinic areas. The team’s goals are to increase patient outcomes overall while reducing the numbers of “code blue” responses, patients’ length of stay, and unplanned intensive care upgrades.
Virtual-ICU Program
WVU Medicine Critical Care and Trauma Institute, in conjunction with Potomac Valley Hospital, has launched a Virtual Intensive Care Unit (V-ICU) pilot program. This innovative program allows a Morgantown-based intensivist to remotely conduct daily rounds, as well as to assist physicians and nurses at outlying hospitals to manage the care of their intensive care patients when assistance is required.
The V-ICU program allows offsite hospitals fast access to board-certified intensivists at a major academic medical center to consult on patient conditions, diagnoses, and treatment plans without having to transport the patient to a larger tertiary medical center. This enables medically-appropriate patients to receive care in hospitals close to their own communities, reducing overall medical costs and allowing patients ready access to quality medical treatment. The V-ICU program has reduced the numbers of transfers associated with lower acuity ICU patients, allowing WVU Medicine to focus on the critically ill and injured here in Morgantown.
Download V-ICU Assessment Form
“It takes a dedicated team of highly-trained professionals to care for our critically ill and injured patients. Our teams within the WVU Critical Care and Trauma Institute are involved in the highest-level patient care and are on the leading edge of trauma and critical care practice and education.”