When the original ICU at the MSU Veterinary Medical Center (VMC) opened in 1965, it was the pinnacle in emergency and critical care veterinary medicine. As medicine evolved, and the life-saving capacity of emergency and critical care veterinarians and technologies advanced the need for an updated facility was clear.
Now, after a donor-funded overhaul, the ICU is back on top. Complete with a high-functioning layout and state-of-the-art equipment, the ICU now also offers a quiet room for feline patients and an in-unit isolation area for close monitoring of patients.
Quality of care
The caseload is skyrocketing, 10-15% a year growth right now.
“The facility now matches the level of care that we’ve been providing,” says Dr. Matthew W. Beal. The design lets in natural light and eliminates visual obstructions, and has a new quiet room and in-unit isolation facility. Beal says the entire team has been able to feel the impact of the renovations, particularly in how busy they’ve become. “The caseload is skyrocketing, 10-15% a year growth right now.”
Communicate to educate
“Moving into this space helps keep the doctors and students and the rest of the veterinary healthcare team all in one area, so there’s much better communication between everybody, and it’s going to facilitate teaching, it’s going to facilitate patient care.”
According to Beal, the greatest impact the ICU has had on education can be seen in the improved communication throughout the facility.
“It helps keep the doctors and students and the rest of the veterinary healthcare team all in one area, so there’s much better communication between everybody, and it’s going to facilitate teaching, it’s going to facilitate patient care,” says Beal. “Moving into this space and the continued growth of the service have allowed us to grow our team and for the techs to not be spread between two units . . . The whole space is just a happier place to work.”
On the horizon
When it comes to what’s next, Beal foresees the need to continue the ECCM framework. “As crazy as it sounds, we are beginning to outgrow this facility. We are making great use and I think in the near future that expanding it and building more of a traditional step-down ward in the image of the current space may be the next step in progression.”
Beal says the ECCM service also has goals to continue expanding its team and increase their research output, all in an effort to extend the VMC’s mission of clinical excellence, ground breaking research, and teaching.