Yale New Haven Health rapidly deploys remote monitoring for ventilator patients

Earlier this year in New Haven, Connecticut, the location of Yale New Haven Health’s main hospital, the health system was challenged by how many COVID-19 patients would need to be admitted and ventilated. The health system wanted to ensure its respiratory therapists and other clinicians could continue to deliver high-quality care amid a surge of patients. The concern, in part, stemmed from the influx of coronavirus patients admitted to the health system’s Greenwich hospital, in proximity to New York City, and even closer to New Rochelle, New York, believed to be the origin of some of the first U.S. cases. That hospital had more than 25 patients in ICU when it normally has five or six. By late April, the health system had more than 300 patients on ventilators across Yale New Haven Health, which can pull its respiratory therapists in numerous directions all at the same time. The therapists each were being asked to monitor more ventilators than normal, often three times their normal loads.