Clinical Dashboard in the Intensive Care Unit: Need-Assessment and Survey about Attitudes and Acceptance of Tele-ICU from the Viewpoint of Nurses and Clinicians in the Intensive Care Unit

BACKGROUND: One of the most worrying aspects of medical area in developing countries is the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This study aimed to evaluate the acceptability of the clinical dashboard by the users, prior to final use and their attitude towards this technology, as well as to examine the specific needs that Tele-ICU technology can cover in the form of a clinical dashboard. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted at Shahid Bahonar Hospital of Kerman, Southeastern Iran, with three ICUs, the first, second, and third sections of which had 10, 12, and 24 beds, respectively. Taking survey and need assessment of care providers, qualitative and quantitative analyses were undertaken to identify key positive and negative themes. The data were analyzed by SPSS software version 18. RESULTS: About 82% of care providers in the ICU participated in this survey. The number of participants based on the groups in the survey was 98 (81.7%) of the nurses and respiratory therapists group, 20 (80%) from the group of anesthesiologists and 20 (87%) from the group of anesthesiologist assistants who participated in the survey. About 51% of the survey participants completed the description section either partially or totally. On average, among all groups, the group of anesthesiologists had the most and the nurses had the least knowledge about telemedicine and Tele-ICU, whereas the anesthesiologist assistants had the most and the nurses and respiratory therapists group had the least knowledge about clinical dashboards. CONCLUSION: This study showed that the level of knowledge and awareness of care providers, especially nurses and respiratory therapists in the ICU in terms of telemedicine and Tele-ICU is low and care providers are in doubt that telemedicine technology could have a positive or negative impact on human resource shortages, yet agreed that it would have a negative effect on the privacy of the patients and care providers. In addition, the ICU care providers agree that Tele-ICU can positively affect the quality of patient care, staff satisfaction, reduce the cost of care, and ease and reduce the time for patient counseling. This suggests the need for further research and education of system impact beyond patient outcomes related to this new technology.