A new 12-bed cardiovascular ICU allows patients to receive one-on-one nursing care from a highly specialized staff following cardiac surgery. Unlike many other hospitals that care for cardiac patients in traditional ICUs, St. Joseph Hospital developed the CV-ICU as a special unit to meet the unique needs of the cardiac surgery patient. The CV-ICU is recognized as a center of excellence by the community and by Medicare for delivering optimal care to the cardiac patient.
St. Joseph Hospital also offers a 61-bed Telemetry Unit that provides specialized care for patients in stable condition who are recovering from a cardiac event such as open heart surgery, angioplasty, pacemaker implantation, a heart attack or dysrhythmia. The Telemetry Unit offers a new state-of-the-art monitoring system. All patients on the unit are connected to pocket-size transmitters which continuously display their heart rhythms at the central desk where a monitor technician is on duty 24 hours a day. In addition, monitoring may be accessed and read from other floors and departments in the hospital. The unit is staffed by highly skilled registered cardiac rehabilitation nurses certified in advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), who are specially trained and experienced in cardiac nursing.