Saturday, July 26, 2008
The rooms have advanced technology patient monitors.
WARREN — Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital has completed its $4.5 million Critical Care Pavilion project, which includes new coronary care and intensive care units.
With the ICU coming on line in June, the Critical Care Pavilion expanded from 24 beds to 30 beds, creating about 18 positions at TMH, said Todd Hickey, interim president and chief executive officer of TMH.
The ICU has large, patient-focused rooms decorated in a homey fashion and engineered to be quiet, making it easier for patients to rest. The rooms, designed for maximum efficiency, include advanced technology patient monitors; fully equipped nursing stations spaced between every two patient rooms; equipment and staff to do tracheostomies at patient bedsides, thereby avoiding more complicated operating-room procedures; and two negative pressure rooms, officials said.
A negative pressure room includes a ventilation system in which air flows from the corridors, or any adjacent area, into the room, ensuring that contaminated air cannot escape from the negative pressure room to other parts of the hospital.
The coronary care unit, done in conjunction with the TMH Heart Hospital, was completed in October 2007. This area of the hospital serves patients receiving care for coronary diseases and those who have undergone open heart surgery. Its room have features similar to those in the ICU unit.
The entire pavilion is equipped with motorized beds to make patient transfers quick and easy, Hickey said.
“The Critical Care Pavilion at Trumbull Memorial Hospital represents an improvement in access to a tertiary level of care,” Hickey said. “Previously, patients would have only received this level of service by traveling outside our community. It is a state-of-the-art, modern facility with the latest technology incorporated.
“Having a Critical Care Pavilion of this magnitude will allow patients in cardiology, orthopedics, neurology and cancer to receive the most effective in-patient care possible,” he said.
The $4.5 million investment in the pavilion represents the combined efforts of TMH operations, the TMH Foundation and the community, he added.
alcorn@vindy.com