Specialized Care for Heart Patients

Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit

If you or a loved one has a serious heart or lung condition that requires intensive care, rest assured you have access to specialized cardiac and vascular care right here in Central Pennsylvania. The Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Penn Highlands Heart Center in Dubois is where our cardiologists provide congestive heart failure treatment and care for our sickest heart and lung patients.

The Heart Center’s Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) is a dedicated 12-bed unit on the fifth floor of Penn Highlands DuBois. Registered nurses and cardiologists who have the training and experience to care for our most critically ill heart and lung patients staff the unit 24 hours a day. They continuously monitor patients using specialized cardiac equipment and technology, and they can intervene at a moment’s notice if needed.

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Our CVICU is designed for the special care of patients who are critically ill with heart or lung problems. You may be cared for in the CVICU if you need specialized congestive heart failure treatment or a life-threatening arrhythmia, or following a major heart attack, open-heart surgery, or angioplasty to open a blocked artery.

CVICU Visits

The Penn Highlands CVICU understands that waiting is stressful when a loved one is having a heart procedure and that you will have many questions. Please keep in mind that our staff’s primary focus needs to be on your loved one to ensure his or her health and safety. Know that it is our goal to have you see your loved one as soon as possible.

We ask that family members wait in the dedicated CVICU waiting room across from the receptionist on the fifth floor of Penn Highlands DuBois. If you need to leave the waiting area to take a call or go to the cafeteria, please see our receptionist, who will give you a pager so you can be notified when your loved one is coming out of surgery or another procedure.

It’s best if you designate one individual who will call the unit for updates on your loved one’s condition and have them relay this information to friends and family. This allows us to focus on caring for our patients.

Once your loved one is out of treatment, please keep in mind he or she will need lots of to recover. For this reason, we ask that you keep visits limited to 30 minutes and to two immediate family members at a time. Our suggested visiting hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for optimal patient health. All visitors must be 14 years of age or older