ICU Design

i like how our 40 bed picu is set up--we have two glassrooms, private beds. in between the two is a computer station where the icu nurse sits and charts but can still watch patients and their monitors. keeps the nurse closer to the bedside when charting all those damn flowsheets.

oh, and our picu is divided into 3 pods...one neuro/hemeonc, one more micu/sicu, and one cardiac pod. it works well.

A centralized nurses station with no obstructed view of the monitor, a phone at each counter at the station, several computers. We currently have a camera in rooms that can't be seen from the desk and that works well. I work on a 10 bed ICU. CICU at the hospital I'm at has complete glass walls on the side of the pt room facing the inside. All the critical care units are central nurse stations that open into the rooms, then a corridor on the outside for visitors. The doors to the corridor are always locked. The only thing I don't like is the lack of daylight for our pts and the fact that there are windows with blinds facing the corridor. I don't like when family members are glued to the glass out there, it completely violates the pt's privacy. Even with the blinds shut, people can see in if they get close enough.

Have nurse servers in the room (where all supplies like needles, flushes, 2.x2's, 4x4's, tape, scissors, surgilube, linens, etc. are kept stocked in the room so you don't have to run a mile to get something) Large rooms so that you can keep plenty of room around the patient. Flat screen monitors (if in budget. You'd be amazed how much difference it makes). Sinks at bedside. Central nurses station that allows all rooms to be in view. We have two floor to ceiling windows in every room (not logistically possible in all units). Bascially anything that makes it aesthetically pleasing while practical helps. Good luck!

An ideal ICU has a large enough nurses station that has enough desk space to accommodate all the docs, PT, OT ,and all the nurses writing and wrangling over the charts.

The nurses station needs enough phone lines and computers to get the job done.

More than one pyxis might be needed so everyone isn't waiting in line to use it at 0900.

Enough storage space for unused equipment-wheelchairs, level 1 infusers etc.

Sinks in public areas -not just in the rooms. Isolation rooms are common, and using a sink in a patients bathroom is not an option.

I just started working in a newer ICU- built 4 years ago. It's 32 beds broken into 4 pods. Each pod has it's own clean utility area with line carts in each utility that are exchanged with central supply every day (saves the feet!). You stay in your pod for your shift. We have large rooms with a nurse server for each room. The drawers for meds and supplies can be opened in the room or in the hall- I love this! Meds and tube feeds are delivered to the server. We only go running for Pyxis meds and IVF. One thing I wish we had were rooms with cameras. In the last ICU (16 beds), we had 2 rooms with cameras so our monitor watcher could keep an eye on patients who needed extra watching or tried to get up.

Gotta keep those rooms close together in case you need some help in there! I like how my unit (12 bed CCU) has a camera in the 2 rooms on the ends since they can't be easily seen inside from the nurse's station. We also have a computer in every patient's room and several in the nurse's station, since many of the central ones are being used during the day by all the docs, specialists, etc.