Media Contact:
Dr. Bernie Hansen, 919/513- 6658
Dave Green, 919/513-6662

Dec. 20, 2004

New ICU Enhances Care at NC State Veterinary Teaching Hospital

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Veterinary Teaching Hospital in the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University has designed a new Intensive Care Unit, allowing critical-care clinicians to help additional numbers of seriously ill or injured companion animals.

In addition to accommodating greater numbers of recovering pets at any given time, the new ICU includes a formal station for nurses, an office area, a kitchen to prepare patient meals, and a special visitation room where an owner can spend quiet time with an ailing animal companion.

The new 1,080-square-foot ICU can treat and care for an estimated 1,600 dogs and cats annually. In comparison, 1,140 patients were treated in the course of a year in the previous 723-square-foot unit.

“We outgrew the original space,” says Dr. Bernie Hansen, who manages the Veterinary Teaching Hospital’s critical-care program and oversees the ICU with Dr. Teresa DeFrancesco. “The original area was just a part of the hospital construction in 1983 and was not designed for our specific needs. It was used heavily and became outdated. Our new facility was designed with the patient in mind and to support today’s critical-care program,” he said.

The fulltime ICU team includes Hansen and DeFrancesco – who are the region’s only practicing board-certified critical-care specialists – and 11 veterinary technicians.

Patients are transferred to the ICU after being referred to and seen by veterinarians in one of the hospital’s 10 specialty clinics or having been admitted to the hospital’s Small Animal Emergency Service.

“The Veterinary Teaching Hospital has become the tertiary referral center where area veterinarians transfer their most critically ill patients,” says DeFranceso. “This means our unit cares for the most critical of the patients who require a hospital stay for a serious illness or who are recovering from surgery. Post-operative care and complicated internal medicine issues both require intense ICU monitoring.”

Specific types of ICU medical issues include diabetes, spinal injuries, animals that cannot walk, cardiology patients, and patients with infectious disease, which requires an isolation room monitored by cameras.

The average stay in the ICU is two to three days, after which the recovering patient is transferred to the general hospital ward. The goal is to return the patient to the home environment as soon as medically advisable.

Hospital revenues and a private donation funded the new $298,000 ICU. The private donation from the Nord Family Foundation is in memory of “Normin,” a golden retriever who was referred to the oncology service and cared for by hospital staff during a six-week period.

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