The SICU at the Hospital Clínic Barcelona has opened a new Intermediate Care Unit (IMCU), which will accommodate patients undergoing medical procedures, and above all surgical procedures that need intensive care but do not require patients to be admitted to the SICU. The new space will mean better management of the Intensive Care Units, which, due to the growing volume of more complex patients undergoing more aggressive surgery, are becoming increasingly overcrowded. Now, the SICU will have eight new beds, which will help and facilitate the dynamics of the unit.
This new unit is designed to be able to treat patients with life support or monitoring measures, but without going as far as more invasive mechanical ventilation. In addition, it treats patients who require specialized care after a surgical procedure.
Dr. Carlos Ferrando, head of the SICU, stresses the importance of the Intermediate Care Unit. “It was necessary to find a place for those patients who are a little more seriously ill than they ought to be in a hospital ward in terms of the invasiveness of the treatment or the intensity of the medical and nursing care they require, but who are not ill enough to be admitted to an intensive care unit”.
Xavier García, care coordinator at the SICU, also underlines the role of the nurses in this new unit. “The nurses who now work in the Intermediate Care Unit are already used to providing intensive care. So, they have expertise in the management of this type of patient”. “They are nurses trained to be able to detect possible problems and find appropriate and immediate responses, and to transfer the patient to the SICU if necessary”, he concludes.
Renovation of the Surgical Area
At the same time, the two remaining operating theatres in the main surgical block at the Villarroel centre have been renovated. Moreover, at the Surgical Area there are also plans to renovate the Major Outpatient Surgery and the ENT operating theatres.
The Surgical Area of the Hospital Clínic Barcelona has modern equipment and state-of-the-art facilities, both in the programmed surgery and in the A&E and Major Outpatient Surgery operating theatres, as well as in the Surgical ICU. Last year, a total of almost 29,000 operations were performed, including 23,000 scheduled operations and 6,000 emergency operations.
