Intensive care and anaesthesia wards at the DHZC

The DHZC has several intensive care units on the Virchow-Klinikum campus. Due to the high level of specialisation, the work on these wards places high demands on the knowledge and skills of the nursing staff.

Patient-centred care is very important to us. This is why we regularly implement a care ratio of 1 to 2 on all shifts in our intensive care units. To achieve this, we have an elaborate cancellation concept.

Here is an overview of our wards and their specialisations.

Wards WD1i and WD2i

The cardiac surgery intensive care units WD1i and WD2i have a total of 44 beds available for the treatment of patients.  The nursing team in WD1i consists of more than 100 employees who care for the patients in three shifts. The ward is made up of two monitoring rooms with six beds each, three two-bed rooms and eight single-bed rooms. The intensive care unit WD2i has 18 beds and almost 80 employees and was extensively renovated and modernised in 2017.

The medical focus is on post-operative maximum care for patients with mechanical circulatory support systems (LVAD, RVAD, Impella and extracorporeal procedures) and after cardiac surgery and emergencies such as cardiogenic shock and acute coronary syndrome.

An interdisciplinary medical, nursing, physiotherapy and psychosomatic treatment team looks after patients following cardiac surgery.

Wards W1i and W2i

The intensive care units W1i and W2i are located on the first and second floors of Mittelallee 2. The nursing team of the cardiac surgery intensive care unit W1i specialises in the intensive medical treatment of patients following heart surgery. Ward W1i accepts patients directly after operations; after extubation, they are transferred to recovery ward W2i where they are closely monitored. One focus is on the care of patients with extracorporeal procedures such as ECMO systems and Impella pumps.

Ward W2i is also where patients undergoing heart valve interventions are treated by our interdisciplinary heart teams in the DHZC's Structural Heart Interventions Programme (SHIP).

Ward W47i

Ward W47i specialises in the care of patients with acute myocardial infarction and acute heart failure of any cause. The team has extensive expertise in the field of mechanical cardiovascular support. Cardiac catheterisation laboratories, electrophysiology measuring stations, a cardiac MRI and a hybrid operating theatre are available for the treatment of patients. The ward is also a reference centre for the treatment of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and acute pulmonary artery embolism with acute myocarditis, giant cell myocarditis and cardiomyopathy (CMP).