Inpatient Services

Facility/Accommodations: The Inpatient Unit is located on the 2nd floor ofthe hospital and all inpatient services are provided in this area. There are 58 licensed beds on the unit including six Intensive Care beds and a newborn nursery. The unit was designed to facilitate a quiet, healing environment and this design has become a reality.

Levels of Care:

Med-Surg - General medical/surgical care is provided by Registered Nurses with an average nurse to patient ratio of 5 to 1. Common diagnoses for this service include Congestive heart Failure, Stroke, GI Bleed, Total Joint Replacement, Choleycystectomy and Hysterectomy.

Intensive Care - With six monitored beds, the ICU co-workers provide care for patients who are more critically ill than those in Med-Surg beds. The ICU includes state-of-the-art cardiac monitoring equipment and private rooms. Common diagnoses for ICU include F/O Myocardial Infarction, Respiratory Failure, Stroke, Bowel Resection, Overdose and Diabetic Ketacidosis. ICU care is provided by ICU-trained, ACLS certified Registered Nurses with an average nurse to patient ratio of 3 to 1.

Swingbed - The Inpatient Unit offers the Swingbed concept for patients who are not acutely ill, but who continue to need care for further physical, occupational or mediation therapy. The Swingbeds themselves are located anywhere on the Med-Surg unit so that, in most cases, the patient does not have to be relocated to a different room as they move to this level of care. Swingbed care is provided by Registered Nurses with and average nurse to patient ratio of 5 to 1.

Mercy Family Birthplace - The birthplace is located on the Inpatient Unit itself and has four private LDRP rooms and two additional rooms for overflow use. A small newborn nursery is maintained within the birthplace and is utilized for newborn care, but the majority of mothers who deliver here utilize the rooming-in concept. The Birthplace is staffed with OB trained, NALS certified Registered Nurses who coordinate each delivery, including C-sections.

Staff: The Inpatient Unit is staffed wit Registered Nurses and certified Nurse Aids as well as excellent Housekeeping support. Other members of the patient care team include Physical, Occupational and Respiratory Therapists as well as Registered Pharmacists and Certified Pharmacy Technicians. All direct patient care staff is CPR affirmed and all Charge Nurses are ACLS and NALS certified. TNCC certification is encouraged.

Therapy: Physical and Occupational Therapists are on the unit every day providing care to patients in conjunction with the medical and nursing staff. Speech Therapy is available when requested by a physician. Registered Respiratory Therapists are also staffed on the Inpatient Unit on a daily basis. They provide respiratory and oxygen treatments as well as ventilator management and the provision of certain diagnostic tests. The Respiratory staff is also present at all newborn deliveries.

Pharmacy: The inpatient Pharmacy is located right on the Inpatient Unit. The pharmacy is staffed with Registered Pharmacists who are available for physician or nurse consultation 24 hours a day. The pharmacy provides all medications for inpatients and outpatients alike and works in conjunction with Mercy's retail pharmacy when needed. Certified Pharmacy Technicians work in the pharmacy on a daily basis and provide assistance to the Pharmacist to enable them to be available for physician questions or patient teaching.

Case Management: The Inpatient Unit has as Masters-level Social Worker on staff as well as a Utilization Review RN. These individuals work together to provide case management services for inpatients including discharge planning and insurance certification. Both are valuable resources for the physicians when difficult issues arise concerning levels of care or discharge planning.