Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
Mission Statement: To provide the best possible care through constant, close observation of patients with acute critical/serious conditions, to immediately recognize potentially life-threatening complications, and to promptly institute indicated treatments.
Our Intensive Care Unit is staffed by Registered Nurses (RNs) specially trained in Basic Cardiac Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Life Support, and includes RNs certified in Critical Care Nursing. The ICU specializes in giving total, holistic care to patients with the most severe and life-threatening illnesses and injuries. The Intensive Care patient requires constant and complex assessment, intense therapies and interventions such as continuous cardiac monitoring. Many of our patients require the support of life-sustaining medications and equipment including a mechanical ventilator for breathing. The ICU team includes Registered Respiratory Therapists as their training and skills are vital to many critical care patients.Though our ICU is primarily for adult patient care, all RNs are certified in Pediatric Life Support to care for a critically ill child.
Our ICU team advocates for their patients, supporting their values, rights and beliefs.
Visiting Hours: Due to the critical nature of patients in ICU, visit times are restricted as listed below. Additionally, no child under the age of 12 is allowed in ICU.
Only two visitors at a time are admitted into ICU; however, visitors may change out with others during visiting times. There are no sleeping arrangement in ICU.
Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CCU)
On the first floor of Medland Hospital there is a 4-bed Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CCU) providing care to critically ill adult cardiovascular and thoracic patients. The care of the patients in the ICU is multidisciplinary with responsibility for clinical care shared between the surgeons and the critical care intensivists.
The unit is staffed 24 hours a day with critical care intensivists, and an advance practice team of Registered Nurses trained in Cardiac Intensive Care. This CCU provides the highest level of care for our patients and their families. Unique services include cardiopulmonary support devices including temporary and permanent VADs, total artificial heart systems, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), providing a form of life support for patients with severe and abrupt heart and/or lung failure.
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
The birth of a baby is a wonderful yet very complex process. Many physical and emotional changes occur for mother and baby.
A baby must make many physical adjustments to life outside the mother’s body. Leaving the uterus means that a baby can no longer depend on the mother’s circulation and placenta for important physiologic functions.
Before birth, breathing, eating, elimination of waste, and immunologic protection all came from the mother. When a baby enters the world, many body systems change dramatically from the way they functioned during fetal life:
- The lungs must breathe air.
- The cardiac and pulmonary circulation changes.
- The digestive system must begin to process food and excrete waste.
- The kidneys must begin working to balance fluids and chemicals in the body and excrete waste.
- The liver and immunologic systems must begin functioning independently.
Your baby’s body systems must work together in a new way. Sometimes, a baby has difficulty making the transition to the world. Being born prematurely, having a difficult delivery, or birth defects can make these changes more challenging. Fortunately for these babies, special newborn care is available.
What is the neonatal intensive care unit?
Newborn babies who need intensive medical attention are often admitted into a special area of the hospital called the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The NICU combines advanced technology and trained health care professionals to provide specialized care for the tiniest patients. NICUs may also have intermediate or continuing care areas for babies who are not as sick but do need specialized nursing care.
Some newborn babies will require care in a NICU, and giving birth to a sick or premature baby can be quite unexpected for any parent. Unfamiliar sights, sounds, and equipment in the NICU can be overwhelming. This information is provided to help you understand some of the problems of sick and premature babies. You will also find out about some of the procedures that may be needed for the care of your baby.
Who will care for your baby in the NICU?
The following are some of the specially trained health care professionals who will be involved in the care of your baby:
- A pediatrician with additional training in the care of sick and premature babies. The neonatologist supervises the nurses who care for babies in the NICU.
- Specialized Registered Nurses trained in NICU
- Respiratory therapists
- Dietitians
- Pharmacists
The members of the NICU team work together with parents to develop a plan of care for high-risk newborns.
High Dependency Unit (HDU)
The high dependency unit is located on the second floor in a designated area of our hospital on the wards, where patients can be cared for more extensively than on a normal ward, but not to the point of intensive care, it is appropriate for patients who have had major surgery and for those with single-organ failure.
The High Dependency Unit (HDU) provides a service of care for very ill or injured patients. Patients on HDU need constant medical support and may require extra monitoring, help with their breathing or they have a severe infection and need to be cared for using specialist equipment or resources.
Our HDU consists of 10 adult beds. Patients are transferred to the unit from all specialties, including ENT, colorectal and upper GI surgery, acute medicine, trauma and orthopedics.
If a relative of yours is admitted to HDU, he/she will be cared for by a specially trained and qualified nurses at all times. Each patient’s privacy, dignity, religious and cultural needs will be respected at all times.
Caring for a high dependency patient is very different to caring for a ward patient. Often HDU patients are heavily reliant on the nursing and medical team and therefore you may encounter delays in visiting while we carry out essential nursing or medical procedures.