For Patients & Families

The goals of intensive care are to support patients through a life-threatening event and to help them recover enough to return home.

When the patient, your loved one, is first brought into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), you will not be able to see them right away.

Our ICU team requires some time to transfer the patient onto the ICU bed and attach the necessary equipment. During this time, you will be in the waiting room. Someone on the ICU team will come out and speak with you. We will explain what is happening with the patient and what we are doing for them. We will bring you into the ICU to see your loved one as soon as we can.

During the patient’s stay in the ICU, nurses can be assigned one or two patients. We will ask you to leave while we perform a procedure or conduct a test. [HJ[1] Once the procedure/test is complete, we will call you back in.

It has been our experience that when a person is admitted to the ICU, it impacts multiple layers of family and friends. It is our hope that this website gives you information about our ICU regarding what you can expect and what you might experience.

Your familiar voice, your reassuring touch and your presence at the bedside is very important to your loved one, and our patient. You are an essential part of the care team.

Please ask us questions. Let us know your concerns. This helps us help you.

Mission, Vision and Values for Critical Care: http://icu.providencehealthcare.org/who-we-are

Who makes up our team: http://icu.providencehealthcare.org/who-we-are/our-team/who-makes-our-team