Peter Lougheed Centre (PLC)
3500 26 Avenue NE, Calgary, Alberta T1Y 6J4
Switchboard 403-943-4555
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Family Engagement
We encourage family participation during rounds conducted by the team. Normal visitation is 24 hours, 7 days a week, with open doors until 2100 hrs.
Quality Improvement
The team has developed a Quality Council. This has improved our unit organization and the intensive cares reordering of supplies
Dr. Luc Berthiaume, PLC Site Director
Patty Infusino, PLC Patient Care Manager
Overview
The Peter Lougheed Centre (PLC) Intensive Care unit (ICU) supports patients with life threatening medical and surgical illnesses as well as limb threatening situations.
The PLC ICU is the second largest intensive care unit in the Calgary zone and currently has 18 funded medical/surgical ICU beds with the capacity to expand to 22 physical spaces during times of overcapacity. In 2020 the intensive care cared for nearly 800 patients. Thru the COVID 19 pandemic, PLC ICU expanded its beds to 27 beds, cohorting in several of the rooms and overflowing into the Coronary Care Unit at times. The PLC admitted in excess of 110 patients with COVID 19(42% of all COVID 19 patients to the Calgary zone).
The ICU supports the 500+ bed inpatient and outpatient units at the Peter Lougheed Centre as required for patients experiencing a sudden decline in health status through our physician consult service, 24/7 Code Blue team (cardiac and/or respiratory arrest) or our Outreach team. The Outreach team is available for inpatient and outpatients who urgently need to be assessed. The outreach team also completes follow-up visits on those patients who require them when discharged from our ICU to the inpatient units. The mean length of stay within the intensive care is 7.1 days.
All admissions to the unit are through the intensivists only. The PLC ICU is a teaching unit that includes Fellows, various levels of Residents, Clinical Clerks, Respiratory Therapy and Nursing students in their final practicum and the advanced stream of critical care from Mount Royal University.
On average the PLC has over 85% beds occupied in the year with peaks of 116% occupancy, however in 2020 with the pandemic, capacity at times, has been in excess of 145%. Admissions to the ICU have multisystem organ dysfunction, sepsis influenza like illness (ILI) or complicated vascular patients with other health issues. ICU also admits all vascular patients requiring catheter directed TPA therapy for limb salvage. The Peter Lougheed Centre has 500 days annually, of continuous renal replacement therapy.
The current staffing model consists of a multidisciplinary team including, Registered Nurses, Registered Respiratory Therapists, Health Care Aides supported by Clinical Nurse educators, Unit Clerks, Dietician, Physiotherapist, Occupation therapist, Clinical Pharmacist and Social Work. The Calgary zone shares a Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Quality Improvement Specialist that provide support to the various initiatives either on site or as part of the Calgary zone.
The ICU actively participates in many varied research projects within the Calgary zone and the University of Calgary.