Campus Life

New heart and vascular unit open for patients

The new Heart and Vascular Progressive Care Unit at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is open to patients. An open house and ribbon cutting was held on Friday, Aug. 5, and patients were moved into the unit on Monday, Aug. 8.

The completely renovated, 10-bed unit is located on the first floor of the Medical Center and, now merged with a 14-bed sister unit previously called the Heart and Vascular Acute Care Unit, the Heart and Vascular Progressive Care Unit offers 24 beds to care for heart and vascular patients who are not in need of intensive care. According to the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, "progressive care is the care that is delivered to patients whose needs fall along the less acute end of the critical-care continuum." The progressive care unit will help ensure patients get the level of care they need while minimizing transfers to different units as they progress toward discharge.

Features of the unit include many sustainable concepts, such as energy-efficient LED lighting, natural-wood surfaces and recycled-glass tiles. Patient comfort and patient safety features in the rooms include: in-room and hallway clinical work stations, so that each patient bed is visible from one of the hallway or nurses' station computer terminals; Corian countertops and sinks used in all areas that may become wet, as Corian is the most antimicrobial surface; additional call button technology that allows staff to ring for various patient needs without leaving the bedside; and rubber flooring that is ergonomically designed to be easier on staff and produce less noise. In addition, some of the rooms are equipped with beds that can speak to the patient in 24 different languages, to help eliminate language barriers between patients and clinical staff.

To see a video tour of the new Progressive Care Unit, visit http://youtu.be/ua9OQtKtX04 online; to see video of the picture dedication ceremony from the recent grand opening of the unit, visit http://youtu.be/PFbB-dbm_Js online.

This photo shows one of the rooms in the new Heart and Vascular Progressive Care Unit. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated September 1, 2011

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