intensive care unit (ICU)

For years Kristina Betters, MD, assistant professor of Pediatric Critical Care at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been aware of the value of getting patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) moving during their critical illnesses to prevent muscle breakdown, weakness and delirium.

The "proud Vanderbilt nurse's" life's work, and her passion, are the patients and the employees of MICU.

The cognitive impairment that affects patients who survive a stay in the ICU does not appear to have a similar mechanism to Alzheimer’s disease, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

Facilitated reporting of medication-related events in the intensive care unit can provide opportunities for optimizing quality of care and patient safety.

Jennie Stuart Medical Center (JSMC) has launched teleICU technology that provides its doctors and their patients real-time access to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) specialists.

“Today I will be happier than a bird with a french fry” reads a sign next to the door as you exit Stacy Jones’ office on the 8th floor of Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital (VUAH). As a social worker on the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at Vanderbilt, the sign’s wording fits Jones’ personality.

The phrase “working twice as hard for half as much” is one that sadly rings true for many patients who have had significant stays in an intensive care unit (ICU). Surviving a lengthy critical care experience can result in depression, weakness, fatigue and other cognitive and physical deficiencies.