04.10.12 After years of discussion and planning, Ochsner Health System has launched an electronic monitoring system that eventually will establish links between the intensive care beds across the network of hospitals and a central hub staffed by specially trained nurses and doctors. Called LifeWatch, the remote ICU system is operating at Ochsner hospitals in Kenner, Baton Rouge and the Baptist campus of Uptown New Orleans.

The 38 patient beds in those critical care units are linked to a monitoring center on Ochsner's Elmwood campus in Jefferson Parish, where medical personnel have constant access to patients' vital data, with the ability to teleconference with bedside nurses and doctors.