Understanding ICU Equipment: An Overview For Patients And Families

Simply hearing the term “ICU” can send shivers down anyone’s spine! If any of your loved ones has ever visited an ICU, you know how serious things get in the house. If you have been there yourself, we are glad you came out healthy!

An ICU setup is nothing without its equipment. The matters dealt with within an ICU are serious, so the equipment involved should not be compromised. Every gadget and tool installed in an ICU facility is crafted with precision. The doctors, along with the technicians, ensure that the equipment is functional with no scope for error. Patients often struggle between life and death in an ICU and the last thing a doctor would want is the equipment to malfunction!

Thanks to technological advancements, it is now possible to have an ICU set up at home. This involves a team of doctors and their nursing staff extending the ICU services to a patient’s home. ICU at home services allow patients to get treated within the comfort of their homes. Without making any compromises on security, hygiene, and health monitoring, these services are intended to give the patients and their families the highest degree of comfort and convenience.

Both traditional and home-based ICU setups require fully functional equipment. While we pray that neither you nor any of your family members ever visit this dreaded place, it is important to have an ICU equipment overview to understand the services better.

Allow us to explain some of the most important equipment an ICU facility should have:

Ventilators

The two COVID waves made us realize the importance of ventilators. It is safe to call them artificial lungs that keep patients alive. These devices allow patients to continue breathing when they cannot do so naturally. An ICU setup is incomplete without fully functioning ventilators.

Just like our bodies, ventilators pump oxygen into our lungs and remove carbon dioxide from therein. Depending on the nature of the disease and the treatment required, doctors use different kinds of ventilators in their ICUs.

Patient Monitors

These are the most basic yet most important tools installed in an ICU. From the moment a patient is shifted to the ICU until they are taken out of it, their health needs to be monitored. It is not feasible for doctors and nurses to repeatedly take the patients’ vitals throughout the day.

Making things easy, patient monitors are devices that display these vitals continuously to help healthcare professionals track every patient’s health. From oxygen levels and blood pressure to heart rate and all other vital signs, these monitors display all basic details about a patient’s health. This is where nurses take the readings from throughout the day.

Must Read: ICU Workflow Optimization: Strategies To Improve Patient Care

Defibrillators

You may not have heard this term but we bet you have seen these devices. When you see doctors giving “shocks” to an almost-dead patient in movies to bring them back to life, you are watching defibrillators. As you may have guessed, these machines are used to give electric shocks to a patient’s heart to ensure its normal rhythm. They are commonly used to help patients recover from serious complications like cardiac arrest. Irrespective of the ICU’s location, every patient suffering from a life-threatening illness may need defibrillators at any point.

Syringe Infusion Pumps

Meticulous medication is important for a patient throughout their stint in the ICU. Syringe infusion pumps are devices used to administer intravenous fluids, medications, and nutrition to a patient as per their needs. Instead of manually administering liquids, these devices are programmed to administer just the right amount of medicines into the patient’s body.

The main purpose of syringe infusion pumps is to increase precision and reduce human errors. Doctors often set intervals or timers on these devices according to the patient they are treating. A single ICU setup may require multiple infusion pumps.

Hemodialysis Machines

This is the equipment used to treat patients suffering from renal failure. They remove waste and additional fluids from a patient’s body, keeping them clean and free from infections. These machines filter the patient’s blood from a dedicated membrane, returning clean blood to their body. An ICU setup at home for a patient suffering from an acute kidney injury should always have hemodialysis machines.

ECG Machines

If a patient suffers from a serious cardiovascular disease, the ICU they are kept in should always have an ECG machine. These machines monitor the electrical activities of a patient’s heart, helping doctors identify issues like heart failures, arrhythmia, heart attacks, cardiac arrests, etc. These devices are also used for patients who do not suffer from heart complications, as several illnesses have an impact on a patient’s heart.

A doctor can choose from many different ECG machines available in the market to cater to diseases of different intensities. If any of your loved ones is ever admitted to an ICU, ensure that their heart’s electrical activities are mapped using these devices.

Must Read: The Role Of ICU Nurses: Providing Caring Attention In Critical Situations

Patient Beds

ICU beds are not like normal hospital beds. They are different in quality and functionality. An ICU bed is built in a way that supports the different tools and devices mentioned above. It is not only comfortable but also impeccably clean and safe. They should be equipped with electric controls, side rails, air mattresses, and much more to ensure seamless recovery.

Feeding Tubes

Feeding tubes are used for patients who cannot eat on their own. These tubes are either inserted into a patient’s nose or stomach to administer hydration and nutrition. These devices are an integral part of an ICU setup and help critical patients recover.

Have A Fully-functional ICU Set Up At Your Home With Docville

Docville’s ICU at home services ensure that your loved ones receive a complete ICU set up with all necessary equipment. Depending on the health complications at hand, our team of qualified healthcare professionals helps your loved ones recover without being admitted to a traditional hospital ICU. Rest assured, our doctors and relentless nursing staff will leave no stone unturned to help your loved ones come out fit and fine!