Photo courtesy of Barnes Jewish Hospital
A new neurocritical care unit is opening August 15 at Barnes Jewish Hospital. A neurocritical care unit allows for doctors to closely monitor patients who are recovering from neurological trauma, whether it be a recent surgery or various other conditions like a stroke or an aneurysm.
This new unit is an expansion of the already existing neurological Intensive Care Unit.
"We were growing at such a great degree, we needed additional critical care beds to take care of these critically ill patients," says Dr. Gregory Zipfel, co-director of the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center and the chair of neurosurgery at Barnes.
The unit will have 24 private ICU rooms, each with tele-ICU monitoring, EEG monitoring systems, and a fixed 128-slice CT scanner. The new cutting-edge equipment in the rooms prevents the patients from having to be moved out of the ICU to the radiology department for scans, which can be potentially dangerous for many in recovery. The new equipment also allows for constant electrical monitoring of common "electrical abnormalities" such as seizures, which can impact a patient's ability to recover. Combined with the already existing neurocritical care ICU, there will be 44 total beds in the unit, making it one of the largest in the country.
The unit will also have offices for multiple, neuro-focused specialties including neurosurgery and neurology as well as specialized nursing, technicians, and support staff. This compilation of multiple departments in the unit will help the Barnes staff to more effectively and quickly work as a team to help more people, says Zipfel.
"By expanding this neuro-critical care unit," Zipfel says, "we're going to be able to take care of more patients in a more effective way."
