Our cardiac care specialists treat people who have a wide range of serious or life-threatening heart and medical conditions requiring advanced care and expertise. Your doctor may advise this level of care for you if you are suffering with or recovering from conditions like these:

• Cardiac arrhythmias
• Congenital heart conditions
• Heart attack or heart disease
• Heart transplant
• Infection
• Kidney, lung or other organ transplant
• Lung disease
• Mechanical heart implant
• Open heart surgery
• Thoracic (chest and lung) surgery

We offer different types of cardiac units that give you the appropriate level of care for your condition and recovery. They include:

Our CICU has 22 beds dedicated to high-level medical care. Each room is fully equipped and staffed to care for critically ill people who require intensive monitoring and critical care nursing. You’ll have ventilator equipment and IV or catheter-tube lines to help you breathe, get nutrition and manage basic bodily functions.

Each room focuses on acute care, including:

• Continuous heart and condition monitors. Medical lines track and record vital signs such as breathing and blood pressure and other details such as blood vessel function, intracardiac pressures (within your heart) and pulse oximetry (red blood cell oxygen). Care teams are alerted and respond promptly if something is wrong.
• Cardiac equipment and support. Certain conditions require internally implanted heart-support devices such as intra-aortic balloon pumps or ventricular-assist devices. Our care teams understand how to manage their specialized care and have supportive equipment, such as ventilators, readily at hand.
• Highly-skilled nurses and care providers. Doctors and nurses with advanced critical care certification oversee your care, supported by technicians with acute-care expertise.

The Advanced Care Units located on the sixth and eighth floors of Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center have 90 beds. These “step down” nursing units are designed for those who are still recovering but no longer need the intensive critical care of CICU.

Rooms in our Advanced Care Units are equipped and staffed for high-level care, including a central cardiac monitoring system, which  allows heart specialists to monitor your condition around the clock and a specialized care team. You’ll be cared for by registered nurses, cardiac rehabilitation nurses, technicians and other specially trained professionals. They’ll help you get stronger through physical therapies and other treatments as you prepare to return home.

At Providence, CICU nurses are part of the MOBI (mobile intensive care unit) program. This offers careful, dedicated transport for patients who need cardiac-assist devices and advanced life support. Doctors may also order this mobile intensive care for people coming from or going to surgery for thoracic (chest and lung) organ procedures or other complicated procedures.

Throughout your stay your doctor will use various imaging techniques to see your heart’s function and structure. This helps them evaluate your condition and progress. You may have these or other imaging tests:

• Chest X-ray
• CT scan
• Echocardiograms
• Electrocardiogram
• MRI

In addition to specialty and subspecialty doctors from varied areas of medicine, these care providers are part of your Providence CICU team:

• Anesthesiologists
• Cardiac rehabilitation nurses
• Cardiologists
• Cardiothoracic surgeons
• Cardiovascular surgeons
• Cardiovascular technicians
• Critical care nurses
• Hospitalists
• Intensivists
• Interventional cardiologists
• Nurse practitioners
• Pharmacists
• Physical therapists
• Physician assistants
• Radiologists
• Registered dietitians
• Registered nurses
• Respiratory therapists
• Social workers