Inauguration of the new MUHC Intensive Care Unit at the Montreal Chest Institute

The MUHC is proud to announce the inauguration of its new $1.8-million Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Montreal Chest Institute, which was financed entirely by the Montreal Chest Institute Foundation through the “Best Care For Life” campaign. Previously an open-space design, the ICU has been completely renovated and now includes individual rooms with flat-screen TVs and patient lifts. It also has a better ventilation system to increase infection control and an improved monitoring station to allow nursing staff to interact more comfortably and efficiently with patients.

“We are very happy with our new ICU. The project was completed on time and on budget and we would like to thank the Foundation for its financial support. These cutting-edge facilities allow us to improve patient care and has improve our employees’ work environment. Each patient is now cared for in a single room, which offers many benefits to our patients, including a reduced risk of infection both for respiratory and other infections such as MRSA and C-difficile, and improved comfort,” stated Dr. Sandra Dial, an intensivist at the MUHC.

"Our seven-bed ICU already enjoyed an excellent reputation thanks to its ventilator weaning program, and is a referral centre that receives patients from other Quebec ICUs who have difficulties in breathing on their own without the assistance of a respirator. The weaning unit is where we help patients achieve that goal. We now have better facilities in terms of patient safety and comfort. The increase in space also makes it easier to work with patients and apply infection prevention measures, while the individual rooms have greatly improved the level of privacy and confidentiality,” explains Chantal Souligny, coordinator of respiratory nursing care at the MUHC.

A comfortable family room, a high-tech negative-pressure isolation room and a multifunctional meeting space for interdisciplinary consultations were also built during the renovation work. A project of this scope can only succeed with the support of many people, such as Institute staff, whose patience and creativity ensured that we were able to maintain service levels throughout the entire construction period.

The McGill University Health Centre
The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) is a comprehensive academic health institution with an international reputation for excellence in clinical programs, research and teaching. The MUHC is a merger of five teaching hospitals affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University — the Montreal Children’s, Montreal General, Royal Victoria, and Montreal Neurological hospitals, as well as the Montreal Chest Institute. Building on the tradition of medical leadership of the founding hospitals, the goal of the MUHC is to provide patient care based on the most advanced knowledge in the health care field, and to contribute to the development of new knowledge.