No more waiting list for ICU beds

CAMDEN — Some of the most notable changes, hospital officials say, are those being made in Cooper University Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

Located on the Pavilion's fourth floor, the ICU will grow from about two dozen beds to 30 private, 330-square-foot patient rooms with carpeted hallways, integrated family waiting areas and a design aimed at faster healing.

According to hospital officials, in the last five years Cooper had doubled the number of critical care patients it sees each day. That number has been boosted by the implementation of the Cooper Transfer System, which transports patients from more than 25 other hospitals in the region.

Gina Marone, senior director of the critical care and medical/surgical divisions, said the extra beds will help alleviate the need for an ICU waiting list, which has been used in the past.

"We usually always have a situation where we have a waiting list getting into the ICU, and we currently have patients waiting in other areas, being supported in other units," she said. "Once we have the increase in beds, we'll be more prepared to take care of those patients right away."

Space for family members has also been expanded in each of the private rooms, and a family waiting area outfitted with Internet access, couches and private consultation rooms is also on the fourth floor.

"It's very important to include family because (when a patient is in the ICU) it's usually for an acute episode that causes great stress for family," said Mary Jo Cimino, the clinical director for adult critical care. "They really need to be updated and included."

Marone agreed.

"There's been a lot of research in the last few years about the importance of family presence, and we haven't been able to do that because of the close-knit quarters," she said. "There's really no privacy for patients or families, and they've often had to go through the grieving process without privacy."

Cimino said the unit will likely open between the second and third week in January.

The move from the existing unit will take place over two days, she added, and had required extensive planning because the unit can't be shut down.

Teams of hospital staff will be assigned to help move one patient at a time into the new building, and physicians will be staffed in each building.

"We'll have a physician who will stay in the new ICU and two or three physicians stay in the old ICU" to make sure the transition goes smoothly, she said.

To accommodate the growing unit, 18 new employees were hired this summer. They've spent five months in training and will be ready to go to work when the new ICU opens.

Hospital personnel spent two years designing the new unit, and Cimino said the critical care nursing staff was instrumental in the design of the large floor.

"Not a step was taken without tremendous input from the nurses and the physicians and the other staff who work on these floors," said John P. Sheridan Jr., the hospital's president and CEO.

"Every design element -- they had tremendous input. That is crucial."


Source: courierpostonline.com