May 15, 2018
Page 3
WHAT’S HAPPENING’S TRI-CITY VOICE
Community Served by Award-Winning Washington Hospital Critical Care Team May is National Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month The Critical Care Medicine team at Washington Hospital is led by board-certified critical care physicians known as “intensivists” who also are board-certified in a primary specialty such as internal medicine, emergency medicine, neurology, anesthesiology, surgery or pediatrics. Other members of the Critical Care Medicine team include physician specialists, critical care nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, nutritionists, rehabilitation specialists, social workers, case managers, spiritual care staff, palliative care specialists and volunteers. “For the past two years, our intensivists have served as the attending physicians for all patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with responsibility for all care from admission to discharge or transition to another hospital unit or facility,” says Carmencita Agcaoili, MD, medical director of Washington Hospital’s Intensivist Program, Critical Care Unit (CCU) and Intermediate Care. “The intensivists also are a resource for the rapid response nurses throughout Washington Hospital
who put patients’ primary care physicians in touch with the intensivists. We maintain a collaborative relationship with our patients’ other physicians, but the primary responsibility for ICU patients now falls to the intensivists, with two intensivists available on every 12-hour shift.” For the past decade, Washington Hospital’s team of Critical Care Medicine specialists has observed national Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month (CCARM) each May. “This year, our theme of ‘Incredible ICU Team’ will continue our tradition of recognizing staff members who go above and beyond in caring for intensive care patients,” says Dr. Agcaoili, who is an intensivist and critical care pulmonologist. “Like the Incredible Hulk, our team members are superheroes.” As part of Washington Hospital’s CCARM observation, multidisciplinary presentations for physicians and other staff are scheduled on the following topics: • Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
Several members of the Washington Hospital Critical Care team.
• Alcohol Withdrawal Syndromes • Clostridium Difficile (often called C. diff ) Infections
team. “Washington Hospital was selected as one of 67 ICU facilities nationwide to take part in this project,” she says.
“These educational events for Washington Hospital physicians and staff are designed to increase awareness of critical care illnesses and help them recognize patients who may require the expertise of our team,” Dr. Agcaoili explains. “We also will hold our CCARM recognition event. Though all members of the team deserve recognition, some were nominated and voted by their colleagues—and confirmed by the ICU leadership—to receive special recognition.”
“As a small community Hospital, it was important to be recognized as a center of excellence by a national organization such as SCCM. It was especially rewarding to know that the SCCM based these awards on evaluations provided by patients’ families. We are very proud of how much we have improved in our efforts to involve and educate our patients’ families. We strive to provide patient- and family-centered care.”
Dr. Agcaoili notes that this year’s CCARM observation has an additional cause for celebration: two awards from the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) were recently presented to the Washington Hospital
Always seeking to further enhance the quality of critical care in the local community, Washington Hospital is nearing completion of its new Morris Hyman Critical Care Pavilion (MHCCP).
Construction is expected to be completed in June, followed by a two-month transition period. The MHCCP is expected to open for patients this fall, following state licensing. “This new state-of-the-art facility will have a much larger Emergency Department – nearly quadruple the size of our current ED,” Dr. Agcaoili says. “In addition, the new facility will significantly augment our ability to provide advanced critical care, with private rooms and an enhanced healing environment for our critically ill patients. Best of all, our already high-functioning team of critical care specialists will be moving to a more advanced facility, where we will be able to provide even better critical care services for our community.”