General Surgery Unit

Service/Responsibilities

General Surgery serves adult surgical post-op patients. Typical diagnosis includes: chest surgery, abdominal surgery, vascular surgery, and urology. The unit also serves patients needing telemetry or invasive blood pressure monitoring.

Technology

The General Surgery Unit uses computerized charting, pagers, telephones, and arterial line monitoring.

Staffing

Our unit has 26 beds with an average daily census of 22 patients. The unit provides patient care using a team nursing approach designed by the nurses on the unit.  Our nursing mix consists of 70% RN's and 30% LPN's. The unit manager completes the schedule. 

Training/Continuing Education

Owensboro Health offers education and in-services that pertain to their patient type. This includes yearly skills lab, EKG classes, Acute Care Classes, annual BLS review, Cardiac Drug and Drip classes. Owensboro Health also offers tuition reimbursement for those attending college and for specialty certifications.

Continuous Quality Improvement

The department is working on fall prevention, pressure ulcer prevention, medication reconciliation, scheduling discharge appointments, member of Institute of Healthcare 's team "Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB)", and code cart checks.