AUSTIN, Texas — On Friday, Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas at Austin held a celebration and ribbon cutting in celebration of the medical center's expansion.
The hospital's Neurocritical Care Unit is receiving another 15 beds, bringing its total to 30 beds. Shahed Toossi, the medical director of the unit, said there has been an increase in need for this type of care over the past two decades.
"So stroke, neurovascular disease, trauma, acute spinal cord injury, infections, inflammation, all of these types of disorders are actually quite prevalent in the community. And so, now that we have the capacity to provide this type of expert care, we are certain that our units will fill up," Toossi said. "Being able to provide expert care right at the forefront and give them the best change of not only survival, but actually doing better and getting out into the community and working again and being cognitively independent is so important."
Hospital leaders said the unit offers the only type of specialized neurocritical care in Central Texas. Previously, those patients were taken care of in more general types of intensive care units.
Assistant Chief Nursing Officer Jonathan Hecht said this unit will see more complex patients.
"Rather than having to go from one unit if you happen to be critically ill and as you improve, or move to a different unit with a different care team and different set of nurses and different set of rehab personnel, whatever else, now we can care for you across that entire spectrum in one unit in one area," Hecht said.
The expansion is part of a $280 million effort by Dell Seton Medical Center to bring additional health care services to Central Texas.