Bliss 8 (B8) is a 42-bed, General Surgical, Urology-Surgery and Plastic Surgery teaching unit. Under the direction of its interdisciplinary Health Care Team, B8 is dedicated to providing quality care for its patients.
Five resident MD teaching services care for patients on B8: Green, Blue and Red General Surgery, Urology and Plastic Surgery. Each resident surgery is lead by a “PG-5”, or Chief, and junior residents. An on-call system for resident MD coverage is established for each service, published and posted on B8 for nursing staff to access for patient concerns, questions, plan of care. B8 Nursing Leadership is comprised of Director, 1 Unit Manager, 1 Nurse Educator (who also covers other areas within the Surgical Division), 2 Acute-Care Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants. Nursing staff roles include RN, differentiated into RN and RN Advanced via the Professional Practice Model of HH Department of Nursing, PCA’s, PAA’s and PSA’s.
B8’s patient population is adult, age 18-and older, both elective and emergent surgical and sometimes re-admission post-surgical. Specifically, B8 serves surgical gastric, biliary, bowel, breast re-constructive, thyroid, throat, urologic and plastic-re-constructive/wound care needs resultant from neoplasm, autoimmune disease, chronic inflammatory disease, nutritional disorders, wound and skin disorders of acutely-ill patients. Patients are received from PACU and also as transfers from ICU or Step-down areas. While approximately 50% of the patients’ plans of care include critical pathways for case management, all patients’ care is individualized based upon needs identified via assessment and problem-identification processes which are documented on the unit’s Problem List document. All patient require multi-system assessment, non-invasive monitoring and may require support of state-of-the-art technology via IV pumps, feeding pumps, hyperalimentation, suction and gravity drainage systems, wound and skin care, pain management. The average Length of Stay, though quite diagnosis/procedure-specific, is 5.4 days.