Inside Duke Medicine

Revamped CCU takes care to the patient

Revamped DRH CCU takes care to the patient

What once was a Durham Regional Hospital unit with patient beds separated only by curtains is now a 22-bed critical care unit (CCU) with all private rooms.

Each patient room is equipped with the latest technology. Every room is dialysis-ready and contains:

• —A Stryker InTouch Smart Bed, a bed that can talk to patients in English, French and Spanish, calculate weight, wheel itself while steered by a caregiver and alert the care team when a patient needs to be turned.

—A movable utility pole that can better accommodate suction and blood pressure readings.

—Other amenities, such as a sink, toilet and flat-screen TV. Half of the rooms also have lifts for patients weighing up to 1,000 pounds.

“In redesigning the unit, we wanted to bring the care to the patient, not the patient to the care,” said Earl Dalton, RN, director of the CCU.

As a result, items such as the Computers on Wheels now enable nurses to have the patient’s medical information at their fingertips. Nurses can take notes on the patient while they are in the room with the patient, not have to walk away to record their notes, which leaves less room for error.
“We are thrilled with the design of our unit,” says Dalton.

Nurses were involved in every stage of the CCU renovation, providing input on the overall layout of the unit and the type of equipment selected. The nurses based their decisions on functionality for caregivers and with patients’ needs in mind.

The hospital began the three-stage renovation of the CCU in February 2007. The $8.6 million renovation was jointly funded by Durham County Hospital Corp. Board and Duke University Health System.

Photo by: Tom Wooters, Durham Regional Hospital

Critical Care Unit nurses Lisa Winslow (left) and Bonnie Dickerson (right) explain how the CCU’s “talking” beds (Stryker Intouch Smart Bed) works to Jamie Walker (far left), Performance Improvement, and Deborah Billingsley, Critical Care Department, during the ribbon-cutting and open house.