Pediatric Cardiology

Cardiac Critical Care

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The cardiac critical care unit is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of health care providers who work collaboratively to provide high quality care for this critically ill patient population. The team includes an attending cardiologist, a pulmonary critical care intensivist, an attending physician specializing in heart failure and a cardiac fellow-in-training. The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) looks after people who are seriously ill with heart or lung problems. It normally takes patients who have just come out from the operating theatre – up to eight a day. Purpose-built and specially designed for intensive care patients, the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit opened in Southampton General Hospital's £60m North Wing in 2007. The 15-bed unit (which has the capacity eventually to care for 16 ICU patients) is close to the Wessex Cardiac Unit's state-of-the-art catheter labs, operating theatres and dedicated cardiac MRI scanner. Patients have one-to-one care from a specialist nurse, and the unit prides itself on its highly trained multi-disciplinary team. Physiotherapists, dietitians, consultants, nurses and administrative staff all work together to deliver a high level of care to patients.