Te Puna Wai Ora - Southern Critical Care has the capability and resources to deliver long term life support to critically ill patients. It acts as a tertiary (specialised) referral service for other health care providers in Otago and Southland.
What is Critical Care?
Critical care is the specialist care given to patients with acute (sudden), potentially reversible, life-threatening diseases. This may include patients who have life-threatening conditions such as a major accident, a severe infection or those recovering from a major operation. Critical care units may be divided into two areas; the Critical Care Unit where the sickest patients are cared for, and the High Dependency Unit (HDU) where patients who are not well enough to return to general wards are treated. In some hospitals coronary care patients and other high care areas may be combined within a critical care area.
Critical Care is staffed by a team of highly experienced and professional doctors and nurses who are supported by other allied healthcare professionals. Specialist doctors trained to look after very ill patients staff the ICU. Most patients requiring critical care treatment have a nurse allocated to look after them individually. High Dependency Unit patients may be cared for by a nurse who is also looking after other patients in the HDU. The Critical Care Unit and HDU also have physiotherapists, dietitians, pharmacists and many other healthcare professionals to help care for these very ill people.
What to expect
Much of the value of the Critical Care Unit comes the careful monitoring of the progress of a disease and the body’s response to complex treatments. This allows timely adjustment of such treatments. In order to achieve this, many investigations and monitoring processes will occur. It may be necessary at times to perform complex procedures in the Critical Care Unit, which may be time-consuming and require the Unit to be closed to visitors.
Besides blood tests (see below), monitoring of other body functions is also commonplace. Heart rate, arterial blood pressure, central venous pressure, oxygen saturation and urine output monitoring are routine. Specific conditions may require other investigations. The changes are monitored and therapy adjusted as a result of the monitoring.