ICU/OHRU Unit

Service/Responsibilities

The ICU/OHRU department is responsible for adult and pediatric patients requiring critical care.

Technology

The department offers cardiac monitoring, ventilator support, and intra-aortic balloon pump support. The unit has 19 total operating beds, with 16 beds  being med-surg ICU beds and 3 open-heart recovery beds.

Staffing

The average daily census is 13 patients. The ICU/OHRU uses primary nursing with an all RN staff, with the exception of ward clerk support. The department utilizes self-scheduling for all staff. We are a closed unit for staffing.

Training/Education

The classes offered to benefit this unit directly are EKG, acute care and critical care, open-heart recovery classes, ACLS, PALS, and TNCC. There are also additional relevant CE’s offered.

Continuous Quality Improvement

The department continually works on its ventilator associated pneumonia rate. The rate is 2.5 as compared to a national benchmark of 5.1. We also conduct daily multidisciplinary rounds on all ICU patients with a case manager, dietician, pharmacist, staff nurses, nurse manager, and the Medical Director of ICU twice a week. The purpose of this is patient safety. We make sure that specific guidelines are in place to improve care and that good communication among disciplines is fostered.

In October 2003 the department started a Medical Response Team (MRT) that consists of an experienced ICU nurses and respiratory therapist. The MRT answers calls that come from anywhere in-house, including Pediatric codes. The calls can be from staff nurses, physicians, house supervisors, etc. The purpose of this team is to decrease the number of unnecessary admissions to the ICU, decrease the number of codes, and decrease the mortality rate throughout the hospital.