The Intensivist's Superpower

There are many skills that a good critical care specialist needs. Among these are the ability to remain calm in crisis situations, good procedural skills, and to know when he or she needs help to care for their patients. This remains true whether the intensivist is physically on site or is practicing remotely.

I recently sat down with Teleintensivst Dr. Eugene Yeh of Sound Physicians (podcast episode here and below) about his life as a telecritical care physician, and he said that a unique challenge of telecritical care is the ability to manage several crises all at once:

You know, I think a lot of intensivists, you know, kind of have this built in, right? They have this personality. They're to do multiple things at once. At home, they're probably doing laundry, they're doing homework with the kids or, you know, making dinner. And so like, you know, for us, like it's almost like a natural ability in some regards. So this tele-ICU, you know, format I think works well for our ability and our superpowers, we have our traits.

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You know, have to have, kind of have that knack, right, to be able to triage. And that's where it gets, you know, the nuances of the field itself, where you'll get a call from a nurse, you know, dealing with some kind of unstable patient with ventilatory changes or, you know,

And all of a sudden you'll get a call about a patient that's decompensating and potential code blue. So you're running code blues and then one minute and then telling a nurse, hey, you got to hold on, I got a triage and they'll get back to you in little bit. potentially a third set calling. So it does get challenging and you have to kind of be able to be quick on your feet, adjust things accordingly.

I recently had this same experience at one of the hospitals in which I work: I had two patients decompensating in rooms right next to each other, and I had to manage this throughout the shift. Dr. Yeh remarked during our conversation that it is an art:

Tele ICU is almost like an art in that way where, you know, we do this as part of our personalities...Like in a video game, we're going to the next level, where, you know, in terms of how we manage multitasking and triaging.

This is the intensivist's superpower: the ability to manage multiple crises all at once and be able to prioritize patient care seamlessly. And, in my not so humble opinion, the intensivists at Sound Critical Care, such as Dr. Eugene Yeh, are the best in the business.

Listen and watch my entire conversation with Dr. Yeh: