Top 4 Challenges of Physician Staffing in ICU 
                     TOP 4 CHALLENGES OF 
PHYSICIAN STAFFING IN 
ICU
INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
• Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in hospitals aim to provide an ideal 
setting to monitor and support critically ill patients.
• Ideally, an ICU includes adequate intensivist staffing 
complemented with a multidisciplinary ICU care team and state-
of-the-art intensive care facility for faster recovery and shorter 
length of stay (LOS).
• It improves the probability of accurate and timely medical 
interventions which is critical to reduce the mortality rate and 
increase the patient recovery rate in ICUs.
LIST OF 4 
PROMINENT 
CHALLENGES 
IN ICU 
PHYSICIAN 
STAFFING • Intensivists Shortage
• Physician Burnout
• Physician Staffing Cost
• Non-ICU Intensivists
INTENSIVISTS SHORTAGE
• A remote, Tele-ICU unit, employing an 
intensivist-led multidisciplinary ICU care 
team can support timely diagnosis and 
treatment of patients in ICUs.
• Tele-ICU intensivists are experienced in 
diagnosing the critically of illness in patients 
based on access to far greater amounts of 
vital trends of data which reduces 
dramatically ICU complications.
• The hospitals in the U.S face an acute 
shortage of full-time intensivists to provide 
24/7 support to the intensive care units.
• Tele-ICU solutions like Intercept TeleMed 
support the timely mobilization of intensivist-
led ICU teams and other multidisciplinary 
support services for hospitals.
PHYSICIAN BURNOUT
• An increasing number of intensivists and 
Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) such 
as Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and 
Physician Assistants (PAs) in intensive 
care units are reporting burnout as 
compared to other specialties in 
hospitals.
• Healthcare organizations are faced with 
the challenge need to optimize their 
resources effectively and efficiently to 
provide better care.
• Tele-ICUs leverages remote monitoring 
solutions like Intercept TeleMed to 
connect intensivists and multispecialty 
physicians from different locations to 
patients in ICUs 24/7 and they have a 
huge impact on the quality of healthcare 
in ICUs, especially in rural and remote 
parts of the country.
PHYSICIAN STAFFING COST
• The American College of Critical Care Medicine and 
the Leapfrog group advocate 24/7 intensivisit-
staffed ICUs since they promote overall economic 
benefits and patient outcomes in hospitals.
• However, an around-the-clock intensivist coverage 
incurred high ICU staffing costs for hospitals 
though it proved to be more cost-effective for high 
acuity, high volume intensive care units.
• Telemedicine, especially Tele-ICU solutions like 
Intercept TeleMed can help reduce the ICU staffing 
cost in hospitals.
• Hospitals can achieve better revenue returns 
through 24/7 remote monitoring for critically ill 
patients with a network of remote intensivists and 
critical care team.   
NON-ICU INTENSIVISTS
• ICU physicians might be required in 
emergency departments during 
unprecedented situations.
• Likewise, a pulmonary-critical care 
medicine practitioner will have to 
travel to remote or rural hospitals 
which could be a part of national 
healthcare organization.
• Tele-ICUs can help patients and 
hospitals benefit from full-time 
intensivists whose consistent clinical 
practice delivers better health 
outcomes and revenue returns.
• They closely work with nurses, 
pharmacists, respiratory therapists 
and other physicians in hospitals on 
an ongoing basis based on clinical 
best practices and protocols.
THANK YOU
• Source : Intercept TeleMed 
• http://www.intercepttelemed.com/ 
• A Tele-ICU services company that is led 
by physicians who have an in-
depth understanding of the problems 
and opportunities for improved outcomes 
within an ICU. 
• Read more : 
http://www.intercepttelemed.com/top-4-c
hallenges-of-physician-staffing-in-icu/