Government of Karnataka, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Karuna Trust, and e-Gov, inaugurated a 10-bed ICU cluster at KIMS Hospital in Hubballi yesterday.
As part of the 10-bed ICU initiative, 10 ICUs have been established in 41 hospitals across Karnataka, linking every district in the state to two TeleICU hubs. KR Hospital in Mysuru and KIMS Hospital in Hubballi are connected to 13 and 10 spoke hospitals respectively.
As part of the 10-bed ICU scheme, 41 spoke hospitals across four divisions in the state have been integrated, providing quality treatment to approximately 10,800 individuals.
The TeleICU setup at KIMS Hospital in Hubballi allows specialist doctors to remotely monitor patients and offer suitable treatment and prescriptions.
The TeleICU system is deployed using a Hub-n-Spoke model with hubs at Government Medical Colleges and District hospitals to connect various specialists to remote hospitals.
The 10-bed ICU project aims to provide critical healthcare to small towns and villages across the country. Similar facilities are already available in 206 districts across 9 states in the country.
The project aims to install state-of-the-art ICU medical equipment in other hospitals in Dharwad district and deploy a healthcare platform in association with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Also, it provides comprehensive training on standardizing medical equipment, CARE software, ICU protocols, Critical care training, and increasing community participation to maximize project impact and sustainability.
The Government of Karnataka plans to launch two more TeleICU hubs in Bengaluru and Bellary. Several NGOs, including Hamilton Medical, Google Cloud, and Koita Center for Digital Health, have joined together to implement the project.