UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital opens a renovated wing today on the fourth floor, including 24 patient rooms with advanced technology to provide extraordinary care.

The 12-room progressive care unit, a step between medical/surgical and intensive care, serves patients who require more frequent monitoring and specialized, critical care staff.

The 12-room cardiac unit, previously on the fifth floor, complements the hospital’s full array of cardiac services, which include a new, second cardiac catheterization lab that opened on the first floor earlier this year.

Both units are connected to the UCHealth Virtual Health Center in metro Denver, which monitors patients’ status 24/7, analyzing vital signs and other data to detect potential complications.

This is the first PCU at UCHealth to offer the Virtual Health Center’s remote monitoring via video and audio by intensive care nurses, along with prescriptive analytic tools. This allows collaboration of care with the PCU nurse directly caring for the patient, with the VHC ICU nurse providing an additional layer of safety. This technology was funded by the Northern Colorado Foundation.

Rooms on both units include oxygen and vacuum regulators to provide critical care-level service. By ensuring a solid foundation of staff who are trained in critical care assessments and techniques, PVH provides a higher level of care.

The renovated wing has ample space for provider documentation, staff work space and clinical integration stations for staff to discuss and chart the patient care.

From left, nurses Amber Zager, Alissa Odonkor, Charge Nurse Zach Karn and ICU/PCU Nurse Manager Lydia Baldwin stand at the entrance of the UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital cardiac and progressive care units.

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital Nurse Alissa Odonkor demonstrates the use of a 1,000-pound bariatric lift.

From left, cardiac Charge Nurse Zach Karn and progressive-care unit nurses Alissa Odonkor, Ashley Jones and Amber Zager stand at the nurses' station for on the newly-renovated units.

The new progressive care unit at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital includes vital signs overview monitors in the hallway.

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital Nurse Alissa Odonkor stands next to emergency resuscitation equipment in the progressive care unit.

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital Nurse Amber Zager stands in a patient room on the progressive-care unit.

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital Nurse Amber Zager stands near oxygen and vacuum regulators that support critical care-level service on the units.

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital nurse Alissa Odonkor sits at a computer on the progressive care unit, which will connect remotely to the UCHealth Virtual Health Center in metro Denver via cameras for added patient monitoring and safety.

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital Charge Nurse Zach Karn stands near a patient bed at the newly-renovated cardiac unit.

Artwork, including nature photos, adorns the walls of the space occupied by the cardiac and progressive-care units at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital.

Artwork such as this photo of two heart-shaped flowers adorns the walls of the space occupied by the cardiac and progressive-care units at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital.

Each patient room at the UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital cardiac and progressive care units includes a communication board to give patients easy access to pertinent information.

The UCHealth Virtual Health Center in metro Denver allows physicians, nurses and technicians to remotely monitor patients.

The numbers

• 24 monitored patient rooms: 12 for cardiac unit, 12 for progressive care unit.
• Two patient rooms are negative-pressure isolation rooms.
• Four patient rooms are completely reconstructed and reconfigured in accordance to the Americans with Disabilities Act.