What this program does...

The St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is the central hub of the Department of Critical Care.  Located at the Charlton Site, the ICU is a 29 bed recently renovated state-of-the-art adult medical-surgical closed model Level 3 ICU. The ICU provides multidisciplinary patient and family centered care to critically ill patients. Our ICU goals are aligned with organizational quality and safety goals. The ICU has pioneered the implementation of an Electronic documentation system with work stations servicing each individual patient room. Ceiling lifts are available in each patient room.

Regional services include: Nephrology, Respirology, Thoracic Surgery, Head and Neck Surgery, and Mental Health. Additional busy services include General Internal Medicine, General and Vascular Surgery. The ICU accepts tertiary referrals from throughout and beyond Hamilton and South Central Ontario.

We ask that you do not bring any valuables with you as the hospital cannot be responsible for lost or stolen personal items. 

How this program helps...

The ICU is a very busy and high acuity unit. Our expert team provides care for complex patients with acute and chronic illnesses requiring basic and advanced life support. With approximately 1000 admissions each year, the ICU is a busy environment that prides itself on comprehensive, holistic team-based care and valuing clinically important outcomes using best practice for patients in Critical Care. Quality improvement projects are conducted each year to evaluate and enhance processes of care and patient outcomes. Our ICU has worked with the Ministry of Health and Long Term (MOHLTC) Care Critical Care Services Ontario and our partner hospitals to develop a Surge Capacity Management Plan to ensure our team’s readiness to providing critical care when many people need critical care with a patient safety focus including emergency department wait times and surgical wait times.

As an academic and research facility, our ICU is renowned for its clinical excellence, and is recognized as a world leader in Critical Care research. Our ICU provides excellent educational opportunities for all clinicians-in-training and established professionals. The teaching focus is integrating pathophysiologic reasoning, and clinical research to practice evidence-based critical care. Conducting clinical research is integral to the ICU environment, to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, treatment and palliation of critically ill patients. The ICU supports ongoing research initiatives.

We strive to provide strong collaborative Nursing and Medical Leadership in keeping with the SJHH Mission Statement, the ICU Vision, and Service Excellence focus. Our ICU team works closely with patients and families to provide a supportive and caring atmosphere during this stressful time. Working collaboratively to ensure quality care delivery to our patients, our multidisciplinary health care team includes: Medical Chief of Critical Care, Director Clinical Programs, Nurse Manager, Nurse Educator, Registered Nurses, Intensivists, Physician Specialists, Registered Respiratory Therapists, Pharmacists, Dietitians, Physiotherapists, Infection Prevention and Control Professionals, Research Coordinators, Social Workers, Spiritual Care Workers, Occupational Therapists, Bioethicist, Clerical Staff, Environmental Services, and other members of the health care team

Your Care Team

We strive to provide strong collaborative Nursing and Medical Leadership in keeping with the SJHH Mission Statement, the ICU Vision, and Service Excellence focus. Our ICU team works closely with patients and families to provide a supportive and caring atmosphere during this stressful time.

Working collaboratively to ensure quality care delivery to our patients, our multidisciplinary health care team includes: Medical Chief of Critical Care, Director Clinical Programs, Nurse Manager, Nurse Educator, Registered Nurses, Intensivists, Physician Specialists, Registered Respiratory Therapists, Pharmacists, Dietitians, Physiotherapists, Infection Prevention and Control Professionals, Research Coordinators, Social Workers, Spiritual Care Workers, Occupational Therapists, Bioethicist, Clerical Staff, Environmental Services, and other members of the health care team

As many ICU patients are critically ill, the ICU care team is extremely sensitive to the special needs of patients and their families at this difficult time. Compassionate, culturally sensitive end of life care is a priority.

Critical Care Response Team (CCRT)

The CCRT is a Ministry of Health and Long Term Care funded initiative which provides Critical Care Services beyond the physical walls of the ICU. The patient’s physiology determines the level of care the patient requires and not the patient’s location. The CCRT is a team that helps other healthcare team members with critical care patient needs. The CCRT brings ICU expertise to in patient areas at the Charlton site 24 hours/every day. The CCRT includes a Physician, ICU Registered Nurse, Registered Respiratory Therapist, Unit Registered Nurse, and the patient’s most responsible Physician. The CCRT received the inaugural Robertson Memorial Award. CCRT calling criteria established and CCRT role included as general hospital orientation agenda item.

Referral Process

The ICU accepts tertiary referrals from throughout and beyond Hamilton and South Central Ontario. We also support the opportunity to enhance the lives of others through the gifts of organ and tissue donation through support from the Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN).

Research

As an academic and research facility, our ICU team is renowned for its clinical excellence, and is recognized as a world leader in clinical research, clinical guideline development and implementation.  Conducting clinical research is integral to the ICU environment, to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, treatment and palliation of critically ill patients. The ICU supports research initiatives that are local, provincial, national and international. We lead many of these practice-changing and practice-informing studies. St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is the only ICU in the country that has been awarded 2 Canada Research Chairs by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

Education

Our ICU provides excellent educational opportunities for clinicians-in-training in medicine, nursing, respiratory therapy, physiotherapy, pharmacy, nutrition, and chaplaincy. The bedside teaching focus is integrating pathophysiologic reasoning individualized to each patient with clinical research results, to ensure evidence-based critical care practice.  Advanced educational opportunities exist for early and mid-career clinical staff, and established professionals, either clinically-based or focused on research training in collaboration with McMaster University.