Cardiac Critical Care and Telemetry
We know your heart.
If you experience a significant cardiac event—like a heart attack, cardiogenic shock, ventricular arrhythmia or severe heart failure—MetroHealth’s Cardiac Critical Care and Telemetry services are the ideal choice for your care. Everything we do is centered around your overall health in mind.
MetroHealth’s unique patient-focused setup allows you to receive all necessary services without having to move from room to room within the hospital. Everything is delivered in the same area—from intensive care, step-down care, telemetry and even bedside delivery of medications—so you can stay focused on recovery after a significant cardiac event.
Whether you are admitted from one of MetroHealth’s emergency department locations or transferred to MetroHealth from another hospital, we’re here to help you achieve your healthiest outcome.
Family-Centered Care
While having a loved one experience a significant cardiac event can be scary, visiting can be important to their healing process. No matter what stage of care your loved one is in, MetroHealth excels at treating heart problems and helping people live a healthy life.
Caring for Critical Patients
A Fast Response for Cardiac Events
For most patients who experience a significant cardiac event, the cardiac catheterization lab—commonly referred to as the cath lab—is the first stop on the inpatient journey.
In the cath lab, our cardiology team provides a maximum level of support to give your heart a break—and help it heal. Depending on your diagnosis, our team can perform minimally-invasive procedures that clear blockages, increase blood flow to your body and improve the mechanical function of your heart.
Examples of treatment we offer include:
- Impella® heart pump
- Intra-aortic balloon pump
- Hemodynamic monitoring
- Medication
- Thermal support
- Dialysis
The Highest Quality Nursing Care
The cardiac intensive care unit is your first step in recovery after treatment in the cath lab. Here, your care team will monitor your progress and provide care. At MetroHealth, you’ll stay in the same room until discharge and receive care from the same team during your entire stay. Few hospitals in the country have the resources to accomplish this, but we think it’s essential to your recovery.
Our team of specialized nurses work in tandem with cardiologists to help you achieve a healthy outcome. Depending on your diagnosis and progress, your nursing team will oversee a number of cardiac monitoring devices—all from your bedside—including:
- Ultrasounds and echocardiograms to monitor heart function
- Swan-Ganz catheters to measure heart pressure
This constant monitoring helps identify if changes are needed in your treatment plan, which could include a return visit to the cath lab.
Step-Down Care
As your healing progresses, you’ll receive a different level of care. Called “step-down,” this level of care prioritizes monitoring but recognizes that patients are no longer critically ill.
The nursing staff in step-down care know that you’ve just experienced a significant cardiac event and will continue to help you recover and get back to life.
Innovative Monitoring Technology
Once you’re more stable after a cardiac event and treatment, you’ll be treated by the cardiac telemetry team. While the monitoring you received in the cardiac ICU and in step-down care was more invasive, all cardiac telemetry monitoring happens on the outside of your body.
Electrodes will be placed on your chest, giving your care team continuous data about your heart function and rhythm.
A Healthy Return Home
MetroHealth’s Meds to Beds program is a bedside medication delivery service—and so much more. After a significant cardiac event, it’s likely you’ll need a number of medications to help you live a healthier life. A MetroHealth pharmacist will come to your bed prior to discharge and talk to you about the medications your care team is prescribing.
The pharmacist will discuss cost and ensure the medications interact safely with your existing prescription.
Your medication will be delivered to your bed before you leave the hospital.
Caring For The Whole Person
When you’re in the hospital for a significant cardiac event, it’s not just your heart that we’re treating. At MetroHealth, we personalize care for you with a multidisciplinary team—all focused on making sure you can live a healthier life.
Beyond your cardiologists and nurses, your team may include:
- Social workers, who start caring for you in the emergency department—finding your next of kin, assessing the situation and even orchestrating child care if needed.
- Inpatient cardiovascular pharmacists, who visit you often to make sure your medications are safe and effective.
- Music therapists, who incorporate musical activities to nurture your entire body—and mind.
- Nutritionists, who make sure the food you eat fuels healing.
MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute
Sometimes a cardiac event can limit the oxygen your brain gets, causing neurological problems. Rehabilitation services are available at the world-renowned MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute.
Cardiac Rehabilitation
After a significant cardiac event, it’s important to form habits that help your heart become healthier. Our Cardiac Rehabilitation program is a three-month journey towards better health.
Advancing Research
MetroHealth participates in many clinical research studies to understand heart disease and disease management, sharing those results with the international medical community.
A team dedicated to you.
The MetroHealth Heart and Vascular Center is setting a new standard of care in northeast Ohio.
