The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital was established in March 1995. Since then, the state-of the-art equipments and experienced medical staffs have not only delivered quality services to patients, but have also nourished excellent critical-care-training environments for residents, fellows, nursing staffs, and respiratory therapists. We emphasize an interdisciplinary approach where the medical team includes all specialties such as pharmacists, dieticians, and respiratory therapists to provide the best care to our patients. Besides the training of Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS), the scheduled didactic curriculum includes morning reports, journal meeting, case conferences, medical imaging conferences, and other symposiums that aim to promote and share the advancement in medical knowledge.

With an area of 2650 square meters, our ICU organized into six-sections. (CICU, VICU, MICU, MSCU, SICU, and NICU). In addition to the individual bedside monitors, each section has its own central monitoring station, where patients’ vital signs are easily observed by the medical staffs. Furthermore, the reverse-osmosis system is set up at each bed for hemodialysis. Each section of the ICU has two isolation beds with independent air-conditioning and negative pressure rooms to prevent cross-infection in the ICU. Two isolation beds have positive pressure rooms which are useful for preventing infection in patients undergoing organ transplantation.

The residents’ call schedule allows for 24-hour on-site coverage to provide patients with immediate care. Our department also coordinates many educational lectures with local medical societies to train the appropriate medical team on the most up-to-date diagnostic methods and patient management in critical care medicine. The continuous education we provide help facilitate the best medical care for out patients.

To provide a safe environment for the critically ill patients, our ICU has continued to strive for quality improvements in patient care. Our endeavors have been recognized by several national competitions for quality improvements in the ICU. In 2003, our department has utilized 『Anti-bacteria circle』to reduce urinary tract infection rate in the ICU(1-2), and we received the Gold Award from the National Medical Quality Improvement Committee and was honored in our poster presentation. In 2005, we advocated 『Unplanned Extubation Circle』to reduce unplanned tube extubation and received several national awards in quality improvement, patient care and safety, as well as “Ishikawa Award” and “silver axes award” from Council for Economic Planning and Development in the past three years.

In 2008, our department has worked with the Cardiovascular Center to advocate 『Heart Protection Circle』to improve care for patients with acute myocardial infarction. We were again recognized by National Golden Awards in quality improvement projects. Our endeavors for quality improvements bring the best care for our patients, and the constant effort will continue to advance patients care at our ICU.

Reference:

The results has been reported in following articles.

1. Huang WC, Wann SR, Lin SL, Kunin CM, Kung MH, Lin CH, Hsu CW, Liu CP, Lee SSJ, Liu YC, Lai KH, Lin TW. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections in intensive care units can be reduced by prompting physicians to remove unnecessary catheters. Inf Control Hosp Epidemiology 25: 974 -978, 2004

2. Lin SL, Huang WC, Wann SR, Lin CH, Hsu CW, Lee SJ, Liu YC.Impact of quality improvement program in reducing the catheter-associated urinary tract infection in intensive care units. Crit Care and Shock, (Suppl 1) 7(2): p-182, 2004