Manipal Hospitals transforms ICU care with advanced tech mechanism

Bengaluru: On the occasion of completing 25 years of critical care unit, Manipal Hospital, Old Airport Road, organized a press conference to showcase the growth and expansion of the unit, since its inception. The hospital brought in a team of experts including Dr. Sunil Karanth, Chairman, HOD and Consultant – Critical Care Medicine, Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road, Dr. Rajesh Mohan Shetty, Lead Consultant – Department of Critical Care Medicine, Chief of Clinical Services, Manipal Hospitals, Whitefield, Dr. Justin A Gopaldas, Consultant – Critical Care Medicine, Manipal Hospitals, Jayanagar, and Dr. Ajith Kumar A K, Senior Consultant and HOD - Critical Care medicine, Manipal Hospital, Sarjapur to talk about the state-of-the-art infrastructure, the advancement of technologies, and the hospital's ability to deliver clinical excellence in high-end Intensive Care services.

Since 1997, the ICU team of Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road, has provided treatment to 35,000 patients with utmost care. The expert team has provided robust care and has handled many critical cases with meticulous planning and execution. As high-end Intensive care services were their focus, they crafted different types of ICUs for patients who undergo kidney, heart, and liver transplants. Patients who suffer from multi-organ dysfunction, severe neuro diseases, and pregnancy-related complications are also treated in high-end digitized ICU with the support of skilled and experienced staff and doctors.

These ICUs provide a range of services including multichannel monitoring, complex modes of mechanical ventilation, different forms of acute dialysis, hemodynamic support and management, high-end neuro-critical care and neuromonitoring, and Extracorporeal services including Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

The Manipal Hospitals, Jayanagar, Consultant – Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Justin A Gopaldassaid,"In these 25 years, the department has grown from a small 11-bed unit to a 50-bed unit with 4 zones. The ICU has also evolved and adapted to provide outreach services to acutely ill patients. To treat such critically ill patients, the staff must be skilled and experienced. In Manipal Hospitals, the nurses and staff are provided adequate training to treat patients efficiently, leaving no space for errors.

He said, "Manipal ICU is one of the first centers in the country to be recognized for national level training program in critical care medicine. At present, the department caters to over 3,000 patients annually which makes this ICU one of the busiest units in the country. The efforts and dedication put in by our ICU team have resulted in the successful and quick recovery of 5,000 critically ill patients."

Since its inception, the department and the management had adopted a far-sighted vision of providing better quality care, which is in sync with advanced innovative technologies. The aim of digitization in healthcare is to reduce human errors and provide more robust care for patients by skilled doctors and nurses. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare has transformed the entire operations of the healthcare system, including emergency treatment procedures, techniques used in monitoring patients, and securing accurate data to provide correct diagnosis.

The Chairman, HOD and Consultant – Critical Care Medicine, Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road, Dr. Sunil Karanth said, "The department has always believed in constant improvement and embracing new technologies to provide better quality clinical care. Work is being done to combine AI and IT with patient care. Digitization will slowly make it easy for medical experts to diagnose the patient without delay, monitor patient's vitals sitting at home, capture accurate data, and access digital reports on any device."

With the increase in critical cases among the younger and older population segments, the demand for ICU rooms has increased exponentially. Lifestyle changes, COVID virus, and severe infections are causing acute illness among the younger population. The demand for ICU admissions reached its peak during the second COVID wave, and the majority of the cases were seen among the younger population. With an increase in demand for ICU rooms, Manipal Hospitals equipped itself with better infrastructure, including rooms, advanced technologies, and a better monitoring system to treat both contagious and deadly diseases.

In Manipal, there are two types of Anterooms used to treat critically ill patients. These are termed Positive and Negative pressure ICU. In the negative pressure ICU or isolation rooms, the air handling unit sucks contaminated air from the room, filters it, and is pushed out into the atmosphere. Patients suffering from COVID or respiratory illnesses are given appropriate medication and care in this room. In the positive pressure ICU, fresh and filtered air from outside is blown into the room. This room is designed to treat post-transplant patients who are under immunosuppressants and need constant monitoring of their vitals to avoid any infection.

The Manipal Hospitals, Sarjapur, Senior Consultant and HOD - Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Ajith Kumar A K said, "The department has always been agile in making decisions when it comes to saving lives. We, at Manipal Hospitals, have gone beyond the walls to shorten the distance to provide advanced care to patients with the help of Airlift ICU and green corridors. Airlift transfers require a team that is qualified to enable smooth transfer of patients from one region to another. The plane has a suitable monitoring system to keep a close eye on the patient's vital signs, such as heart rate, pulse, and oxygen saturation."

The Lead Consultant – Department of Critical Care Medicine, Chief of Clinical Services, Manipal Hospitals, Whitefield, Dr. Rajesh Mohan Shetty said, "The department have an advanced scoring system which is used to evaluate several health parameters of patients. These scoring systems takes into account the physiological scores of the patients into statistical algorithms that provides a single score. These scores help the clinical experts to predict how a patient's condition will progress or how they will react to certain clinical interventions." The ICU team has shown exponential development in terms of services, technology, and medicines. The team continues its commitment to providing high-end world-class care to both minor to critically ill patients.