HUNTINGTON -- Shorter stays and better outcomes can be found in intensive care units (ICU) at St. Mary's Medical Center since the implementation of a computer software program called APACHE.

In the last year, the program expanded to the cardiovascular ICU in addition to the medical and neurotrauma ICUs and also garnered national attention for St. Mary's.

Physicians and staff use the APACHE system to document every aspect of care for ICU patients. APACHE data is used to determine a goal for each patient's length of stay.

By putting an acute focus on what's needed to get each patient to recovery, length of stays in the ICU are often shortened and more patients survive the critical care process, according to Sharon Shaw, public relations manager at St. Mary's.

The APACHE project started at St. Mary's about eight years ago and continues to be used to gauge mortality and length of stay in the ICU. The software allows physicians and staff to compare St. Mary's data with that of other hospitals', according to Dr. William R. Beam, medical director of critical care at St. Mary's.

"It is probably the most statistically powerful tool we have to do that," Beam said. "Prior to APACHE and some other modeling, it was very difficult to assess the quality of your ICU care."

Since the program's implementation, the medical ICU has had at least 11 unexpected survivors, the neurotrauma ICU has had seven unexpected survivors, and the cardiovascular ICU has had three, Beam said. Those individuals arrived to the hospital in conditions in which they may not have survived had it not been for the APACHE monitoring.

"It's very satisfying to me to see this is all come together over the past few years," he said.

Beam said APACHE is a strong tool that enables the hospital to stay on top of cutting edge technology and gives staff benchmarks comparative to other hospitals. With the program, St. Mary's can look at nursing-staff ratios, training and other areas at places like Duke or Cleveland Clinic, he said.

Shaw said St. Mary's received national recognition at a conference in February for using the program in its ICU units to improve trauma patients' outcomes.

APACHE coordinator Stacy Dickess presented an abstract on the subject at the Society of Critical Care Medicine in Nashville, Tenn., last month. Shaw said the St. Mary's abstract was the only one accepted involving the use of APACHE to improve outcomes for trauma patients.

Dickess said APACHE continues to improve health care at the hospital.

"After making different changes like implementing a trauma coordinator, looking at daily data with APACHE, and getting interdisciplinary teams together to talk about the patients every day and once a week with all trauma patients in the hospital, after we started doing those we saw wonderful improvements," she said.

As a result, more people were leaving the ICU sooner and relying on the ventilator less, she said.

Dr. David Denning medical director of trauma services at St. Mary's, said he has been impressed by the cooperation of everyone at St. Mary's who plays a role in patient care.

"APACHE is a great tool and it just shows that by working together you can make a difference for patients," he said.

Trauma services manager Connie Campbell said multidisciplinary teams involve nurses, dietary staff, physicians, therapist, social workers and others who meet every morning in the ICU to discuss patients.

She said it's because of APACHE that St. Mary's developed their teams in 2005.

Beam said APACHE allows staff to develop standardized approaches for patient care and assess success rates.

"APACHE has allowed us to return West Virginia's most valuable resources to it, which is its people," Beam said.

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