Telemtery and CCU- whats the main difference?

[Woman_in_love]

Hi everyone!

I've read your responses about Telemetry unit and got a lil bit confused.

That reminds me a lot about CCU.

So what is the difference between these two?

P.S. CCU-Is it cardiac care unit or critical care unit?

[babynursewannab]

The standard meaning of CCU is "Cardiac Care Unit" (In most facilities...who knows about those that like to get creative). CCU is where patients who have the potential to go into sudden failure hang out. Some of them are sick as dogs. Others have horribly sick hearts, but seem otherwise fine to the casual observer. Heart attack patients awaiting surgery and those awaiting a heart transplant are a couple of other examples. Patients in the CCU are hooked up to bedside cardiac monitors (or portable monitors if transporting to procedure).

Telemetry is a step-down unit for most facilities. The patients are recovered enough or well enough to be out of the ICU, but still need continuous cardiac monitoring. This is accomplished by hooking up the EKG leads attached to the person to a little box that remotely sends the information to a location where the patient rythm is monitored. This box is portable so these patients can be monitored while they are rehab-ing. If the doctor okays it, the monitor can be removed for showering/bathing. Many (most of ours, at least) patients are discharged home off the tele floor.

Hope this helps.