Coronary Care Unit

Introduction

As a tertiary cardiac centre we take patients from across the South West of England who require emergency treatment in the Bristol Heart Institute.

The Coronary Care Unit, often abbreviated to CCU, is an 11 bedded high dependency area. We care for patients who are acutely unwell with different cardiac conditions. This includes patients having heart attacks, unstable angina, serious rhythm disturbances, problems with heart failure, infections of the heart valves and complicated conditions that some people have had since birth. Technical terms for some of these conditions are: 

Acute coronary syndrome

Cardiac arrhythmias

Adult congenital heart disease

Cardiomyopathies and channelopathies

Endocarditis

and other acute cardiac conditions

Coronary Care Unit ward vision 

The Coronary Care Unit will aim to provide our patients with a high standard of care at all times. This care will be individualised to each patient and their specific needs. Our patients and their families should feel supported and well informed during their stay on the unit. They will be involved in the planning during all stages of their care. 

We aim to be organised, which in return will enable us to spend more time caring for our patients. The Coronary Care Unit aims to be a peaceful environment that promotes rest. This will assist the patients in their recovery. 

The staff on the Coronary Care Unit aim to have excellent clinical skills. They will be dedicated to providing the best quality of care possible. This will be achieved by continual learning. We will support each other and work exceptionally well as a team. Our staff will work in a safe and happy environment. All staff on the unit will be respected and treated as equals. 

We will aim to maintain low numbers of hospital acquired infections. This will be achieved through keeping a clean and tidy
environment and through staff training. Patients on our unit will have a low risk of developing a hospital acquired infection. 

Ward structure

The ward structure consists of a ward sister, 3 senior staff nurses, 21 staff nurses, and 5 nursing assistants, ward clerks and domestic staff. Registered staff nurses are the ward sister, senior staff nurses and staff nurses. 

Jacqueline Fear, ward sister 

Uniforms

For an example of what uniforms you can expect to see on the ward, please view the image below.

Daily routine of Coronary Care Unit 

As we accept emergency patients 24 hours a day we aim to provide care around individual patient requirements. However certain routines occur as with any environment and these are as follows: 

Every morning between 8am and 10am the cardiology consultant on call for the Bristol Heart Institute will complete a ward round, reviewing all appropriate patients on CCU. The adult congenital heart disease patients will be reviewed by their specialist cardiology team. The ward round is completed by the cardiology consultant, specialist registrar, senior house office, nurse in charge of CCU during the shift and the nurse caring specifically for the patient. Each patient is discussed and seen by the team and a plan of care is identified and discussed with the patient.    

We have protected mealtimes between 12 midday and 1.15pm and 5pm and 6.00pm. This means that during this time we don't allow any visitors, including medical staff onto the unit. This is to provide uninterrupted meal service so patients can eat in a calm private environment in an aid to promote nutritional intake.

Example lunch menu

Example supper menu

Visiting times 

Visiting times are in accordance with Trust regulations and are 2pm to 8pm.   

On the first day of admission, due to the nature of the emergency admission, we are more flexible and when patients are unstable and gravely unwell. However after the first day unless there are specific individual reasons why the patient requires longer visits we request that all relatives respect and adhere to the visiting times. Limited visiting times enables patients' to rest fully and recover during non visiting times.

Should any visitor have any signs of diarrhoea or vomiting we ask that they should not visit until they are 48 hours clear of infection ensuring the safety of their relative and other patients on the unit.

Contact details

The telephone number for the ward is 0117 342 6528. Please be aware that this is a busy ward and it may take a while for your call to be answered.

Visitors to the Coronary Care Unit - patient information leaflet