Different hospital units

[emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

As someone who has worked entirely prehospital and is starting the nursing classes shortly, can someone fill me in on what the different letters mean when referencing different units.

I know the following:

ER= emergency room

MICU= medical intensive care unit.

ICU= intensive care unit

NICU= neonatal intensive care unit

L&D= labor and delivery

Some I'm not sure of

Picu

Pacu

Sicu

Any help is appreciated.

[Dogen]

Pediatric ICU

Surgical ICU

Post-anesthesia care unit... though in some facilities it's pre- and post-anesthesia.

You can actually google these acronyms. :)

[emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

I did but some come up with different meanings . MICU, besides meaning what I wrote above, also comes up as Mobile Intensive Care Unit. I just figured I would ask the experts!

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

CVICU Cardiovascular ICU

CTICU cardio thoracic ICU

BICU Burns ICU

NCCU Neuro Critical Care Unit

Hmm idk what else to add. Every hospital is different.

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

IR - Interventional Radiology

OHSD - Open Heart Step Down

CCU - Coronary Care Unit/Critical Care Unit/Cardiac Care Unit

CICU - Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit

MSICU - Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit

[loriangel14, RN]

I work on a CCC unit. Complex Continuing Care

[Bumex, DNP, NP]

I've worked on a CDU- clinical decision unit. It's often considered an expansion of the ED. Patients are often 'observation' and stay for 18 hours. They will either be made inpatient and sent to a unit or discharged.

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

I've worked on a CDU- clinical decision unit. It's often considered an expansion of the ED. Patients are often 'observation' and stay for 18 hours. They will either be made inpatient and sent to a unit or discharged.

Interesting. What levels of acuity?

[Bumex, DNP, NP]

Basically higher acuity then the majority of ED patients, but lower than immediate admissions. Some of mine had atypical symptoms and needed further evaluation to determine a diagnosis. That diagnosis either lead to full admission or discharge. Generally, people who where admitted ended up with a positive third troponin and actively having an MI with atypical symptoms. I definitely liked the feel of it. It had an ED feel, but very few drug seekers or basic complaints.

[Neural]

Oh there's tons of these, and hospitals don't always use the same abbreviations. For example, NICU can mean neonatal ICU at one hospital and neurological ICU at another.

Don't forget the Progressive Care Units (PCU), either, which are a step-down unit from the ICU, meaning that relatively high-acuity patients leave the ICU and may go to the appropriate PCU for a day or two before going to the floor units. Or vice versa, a patient who is doing poorly on the floor unit may go to PCU prior to being transferred to ICU.

There are Neuro Progressive NPCU, Surgical SPCU, Medical MPCU, etc.

[AceOfHearts<3]

My hospital has the IICU- intermediate critical care unit. It's a step down from ICU and is what some hospitals refer to as PCU (which as stated is frequently known as the Progressive Care Unit)

[SassyTachyRN]

We also use these:

STICU- surgical-trauma ICU

ONT- ortho-neuro-trauma

CDT- cardiac telemetry

Onc- oncology (inpatient)

BMT- bone marrow transplant