South Florida Baptist Hospital held a VIP reception of the new Charles and Betty Grimes Critical Care Center Thursday, April 21.
The completion of the new 17-bed Intensive Care Unit replaces the eight-bed ICU that opened in 1987 in the hospital's east wing.
“When we built the Jim and Ruby Jean Redman Emergency Center that opened in 2006, we predicted the need for a new ICU that would provide more flexibility and capacity,” President Karen Kerr said. “With that in mind, we included a second floor of shelled-in space just for this purpose.”
The 13,400-square-foot space above the Emergency Center mimics the Emergency Center’s race track design with the 17 rooms placed on the exterior walls with a center core area for the clinical team.
A new elevator provides direct access from the Emergency Center to the Charles and Betty Grimes Critical Care Center, allowing critical patients to receive care faster. The elevator also is secure; only team members with appropriate access can operate this elevator via badge access.
Once on the unit, patients are monitored by nurses and physicians via clear glass doors that allow for better visibility of patients and rest for the patient.
Four of the ICU rooms are negative air pressure rooms that include a ventilation system that generates negative pressure to allow air to flow into the isolation room but not escape from the room. Air will naturally flow from areas with higher pressure to areas with lower pressure, thereby preventing contaminated air from escaping the room. These types of rooms are particularly important for patients with certain airborne contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, measles or chicken pox.
Later this year, South Florida Baptist Hospital will begin using eICU. Patients will be monitored by audio and visual computer systems. Bedside clinicians will have a virtual presence in the room in a matter of seconds.