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Programs & Services

Critical Care

Intensive Care Units

medical surgical intensive care unit

Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit (MSICU)
The medical surgical intensive care unit, with 24 beds, is a large tertiary and quaternary unit serving a full range of patients served by academic medical and surgical programs of the Hospital and receiving patients through Criticall within and outside the city. Specialized services and expertise include complex ventilation, dialysis and continuous dialysis, specialized hematology and sepsis services (60%) and those surgical services without program specific critical care units (40%). Those services are predominately vascular, general surgery/MIS and orthopedics.

cardiovascular intensive care unit

Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU)
The cardiovascular intensive care unit, with 13 beds, determines its population in close cooperation with the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario. Specific targets are set at the Ontario Ministry of Health. Typically, there are approximately 1200 admissions per year with a relatively high proportion of higher risk and complex surgical patients. Weighted cases in 2001/2 were 6,183 with 60% elective cases and an average LOS of 3.5 days.
trauma & neurosurgery intensive care unit

Trauma & Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit (TNICU)
The trauma & neurosurgery unit, with 13 ICU and four stepdown beds, serves two sets of patients. The Hospital is a designated regional trauma centre for patients with multi-system trauma (typically an ISS >15). The unit serves the area of Metro Toronto with a geographic division (with Sunnybrook) and patients transported from outside the city on alternating days through Criticall. There are approximately 400/yr with ISS >15. The neurosurgical ICU beds serve a large tertiary neurosurgical patient population as well as certain quaternary neurosurgical programs (pituitary, skull base, brain tumor PDT). The unit serves a large proportion of the Critical neurosurgery referrals.

coronary care unit

Coronary Care Unit (CCU)
The coronary care unit, with two ventilated and eight coronary care beds, serves a variety of patients but most commonly those with acute coronary syndromes arriving both from our local catchment area and the emergency department. It also serves as a tertiary and quaternary referral from regional hospitals and facilitates with advanced interventional cardiological procedures. Of the 815 cases for 2001/2, weighted cases were 3144, with 44% of total patients admitted through Emergency.

Note: All these units are organized on a multidisciplinary team model, with decision making process involving all the members of the team. At the unit level these teams are dedicated to patient care and a specific clinical area of expertise.