ARU

The staff of ARU department is aware of the psychological burden borne by the family members of a patient whose health condition has suddenly and unexpectedly deteriorated to an extent requiring hospitalisation in the intensive care unit.

We are going to try to help you with your difficult situation as much as possible, namely by allowing you to visit the patient at the bed and by informing you continuously about their health condition and a therapeutic plan (according to the current legislation).

If your relative has been transported to our department by an Emergency, please wait at least two hours to request for the first information. After the patient is admitted to our department, a diagnostic and therapeutic process is performed, during which a diagnosis is made (searching for the causes of the sudden health deterioration), and the resuscitation (securing airways, vein inputs and other invasions necessary to monitor the health condition and/or enable the treatment) and the therapy of the causes are carried out. Doctors and nurses are fully engaged in the care of your close person during this period, which is critical to the future positive development of the patient's health condition.

In compliance with the current legislation, we provide information about the health status of hospitalized patients only to the family members in person when they visit the department. To be able to provide information by a telephone call, you will be given a PIN (password) at your first visit. The password will identify you at a call to the doctor and prevent the unauthorised information.

The best time for calling to learn the news about the patient's state from the second day on is around 10 AM. It is the time, when the comprehensive morning check-ups are performed, a comprehensive set of laboratory results and imaging methods are available, and the physician has the most up-to-date findings on which to base the plan of the follow-up care.

The best time to visit your relative is around 2:30 PM, when the regular nursing activities are completed, namely the hygiene, the care of all invasive inputs and other necessary procedures. Based on Decree No. 306/2012 Coll., visitors to the acute inpatient intensive care unit must use protective clothing. It can be bought from the machine at the entrance to the Emergency Department, or at the entrance to the cardiology and trauma-orthopaedic ICU, or in the hospital pharmacy. By wearing protective clothing, you protect yourself at the first place, but your close person too.

We will allow you to visit our department at any other time with regards to your options by prior arrangement with a nurse and a doctor. However, we ask for your forbearance and patience when our staff are taking care of other patients with life-threatening conditions and when you may be asked to wait some time outside the department (typically not more than ten minutes).

The number of the necessary appliance in the limited space of the bedside boxes usually does not allow more than two people to be present at the same time. For visits comprising more people, we ask you to take turns at the patient's bedside.

Please keep in mind that due to the medical condition and the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, the vital signs of your close person and his/her appearance may be significantly altered during hospitalization in the ARU (the disturbances in consciousness or reactivity may be the most striking ones, whether they occur in connection with the illness itself or due to the necessary analgosedation – often colloquially referred to as "the artificial sleep" – and the presence of many inputs, such as tubes and hoses, in the patient's body). For this reason, we do not recommend children to visit the ARU department.