FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Barb Meyer
Executive Director - Corporate Communications
Sisters of Mercy Health System www.mercy.net
v: 314.628-3633
f: 314.628-3734
e: bmeyer@corp.mercy.net

Sisters of Mercy Health System to Implment eICU® Program

St. Louis, Mo. (May 2, 2006) — As part of an ongoing commitment to supporting quality care and patient safety, the Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy) has announced plans to implement an electronic intensive care program (eICU®) at hospitals across the Mercy system. eICU technology, provided by VISICU, Inc., enables off-site critical care physicians and nurses to provide around-the-clock support to hospital-based ICU staff through the use of remote voice, video and data monitoring tools and early warning software.

The eICU command center, which houses these off-site specialists, will be located on the campus of St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo. This location was chosen due to St. John’s Mercy’s strong history of educating and recruiting critical care physicians through an intensive care (intensivist) training program.

“Mercy is committed to providing our patients with the safest, high-quality care possible, so combining the strengths of the established intensivist program at St. John’s Mercy with eICU technology will benefit both our patients and ICU staff across our health system,” said Ron Ashworth, Mercy president and CEO.

Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will be the first hospital to receive eICU support later this year. St. John’s Mercy Medical Center and St. John’s Hospital in Washington, Mo. will begin using eICU technology in 2007.

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About Mercy

The Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy) operates hospitals, physician practices, outpatient clinics, health plans and related health and human services in a seven state area including Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Its members include 18 acute care hospitals providing more than 4,000 licensed beds, a heart hospital, a managed care subsidiary (Mercy Health Plans), physician practices, outpatient care facilities, home health programs, skilled nursing services and long-term care facilities. Services are provided by approximately 26,000 co-workers and 3,100 physicians who are employed or practice at Mercy facilities. Mercy is the ninth largest Catholic healthcare system in the United States based on net patient service revenue and is sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy–St. Louis Regional Community.

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