The intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of the hospital that provides intensive care medicine.

NAME OF HEAD : Ernest Ofosu-Appiah

HEAD NURSE: Madam Diana Eyram Offei

The ICU caters for patients with severe or life-threatening illnesses and injuries, which require constant care, close supervision from life support equipment and medication in order to ensure normal bodily functions. The ICU are staffed by highly trained physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists who specialize in caring for critically ill patients. The ICUs is distinguished from general hospital wards by a higher staff-to-patient ratio and access to advanced medical resources and equipment that is not routinely available elsewhere. Common conditions that are treated within the ICUs include acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, and other life-threatening conditions.

TYPES

⦁  Coronary care unit: Caters for patients specifically with life-threatening cardiac conditions such as a myocardial infarction or a cardiac arrest.

⦁  Geriatric intensive-care unit:  A special intensive care unit dedicated to the management of critically ill elderly.

⦁  High dependency unit: An intermediate ward for patients who require close observation, treatment and nursing care that cannot be provided in a general ward, but whose care is not at a critical stage to warrant an ICU bed. It is utilized until a patient's condition stabilizes to qualify for discharge to a general ward or recovery unit. It may also be called an intermediate care area, step-down unit, or progressive care unit.

⦁  Isolation intensive care unit: An intensive care unit for patients with suspected or diagnosed contagious diseases that require medical isolation.

⦁  Neonatal intensive care unit:  Cares for neonatal patients who have not left the hospital after birth. Common conditions cared for include prematurity and associated complications, congenital disorders such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia, or complications resulting from the birthing process.

⦁  Neurological intensive care unit: Patients are treated for brain aneurysms, brain tumours, stroke, rattlesnake bites and post-surgical patients who have undergone various neurological surgeries performed by experienced neurosurgeons require constant neurological exams. Nurses who work within these units have neurological certifications. Once the patients are stable and removed from the ventilator, they are transferred to a neurological care unit.

⦁  Pediatric intensive care unit: Pediatric patients are treated in this intensive care unit for life-threatening conditions such as asthma, influenza, diabetic ketoacidosis, or traumatic neurological injury. Surgical cases may also be referred following surgery if the patient has a potential for rapid deterioration or if the patient requires monitoring, such as spinal infusions or surgeries involving the respiratory system such as removal of the tonsils or adenoids. Some facilities also have specialized pediatric cardiac intensive care units where patients with congenital heart disease are treated. These units also typically cater for cardiac transplantation and postoperative cardiac catheterization patients if those services are offered at the hospital.

⦁  Post-anesthesia care unit: Provides immediate post-op observation and stabilization of patients following surgical operations and anaesthesia. Patients are usually held in such facilities for a limited amount of time and have to meet set physiological aspects before being transferred back to award with a qualified nurse escort. Owing to high patient flow in recovery units, and to the bed management cycle, if a patient breaches a time frame and is too unstable to be transferred back to the award, they are normally transferred to an intensive care unit in order to receive progressive treatment.

⦁  Surgical intensive care unit:   A specialized service in larger hospitals that provides inpatient care for critically ill patients on surgical services. As opposed to other ICUs, the care is managed by surgeons or anesthesiologists trained in critical care.

⦁  Trauma intensive care unit:    These are found in hospitals certified in treating major trauma with a dedicated trauma team equipped with the expertise to deal with serious complications.

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