The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University was founded by Professor Kefu Wang, a famous expert in critical care medicine in China in 1991. It is one of the first eleven ICUs affiliated to colleges directly under the Ministry of Health and is the first comprehensive ICU in Shandong Province. The establishment of the department opened the history of critical care medicine in Shandong. After more than 20 years of unremitting efforts, the ICU has gradually formed its own professional characteristics and academic style, showing advantages in reservation of technical talents. It has a good reputation and wide influence in the domestic critical care medicine filed. Now, ICU is the core department of critical care and rescue in the hospital. It serves as the transfer and treatment center of critically ill patients in the hospital and Shandong Province, and treats more than 1,000 critically ill patients per year. In 1995, ICU has been eligible to confer master’s degrees. In 2010, it began to recruit doctoral candidates. In 2011, it was approved by the Ministry of Health to be the first batch of National Key Clinical Specialties of Critical Care Medicine. In 2013, it became an independent second-level discipline to recruit doctoral and master students of critical care medicine, which was the first doctoral program of critical care medicine in Shandong. In 2020, the National Health Commission approved the construction of The National Diagnosis and Treatment Ability Improvement Project (Intensive Care Medicine), which provide a huge opportunity for the development of the department. There are 30 physicians in the department, including 1 doctoral tutor, 2 master tutor, 2 chief physicians, 4 associate chief physicians, 16 attending physicians and 1 cardiovascular first aid training supervisor in the American Heart Association (AHA). Four people have won the Critical Care Medicine Youth Research Award from the Chinese Medical Association and the Shandong Medical Association Young Scientist Critical Care Medicine Award. It is a training base for intensive care specialist nurses in Shandong with more than 200 senior, middle and primary nursing staffs. In 2012 and 2019, it was separately awarded "Women Civilization Station" and "Worker Pioneer" by the Shandong Province. 

 

At present, there are three wards, 61 open beds in ICU. Each bed is equipped with a Dutch Philips multi-function monitor to monitor the patient's heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, oxygen saturation and other vital signs for 24 hours. Ventilators provide powerful guarantee for respiratory and circulatory support for critically ill patients. The ICU has MAQUET (Sweden), PB-840 (Tyco, United States), Siemens and Dräger (Germany), Taema (France) and other famous medium and high level ventilators. More than 30 ventilators can provide breathing support to patients of different ages, including newborns, children, and adults. At the same time, it can monitor various ventilation parameters such as pressure, flow, and flow rate in real-time according to the patient's condition. Neutrally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) ventilator provides the most comfortable and reasonable breathing support based on the diaphragmatic muscle action potential. The continuous blood purification systems including Baxter AQUARIUS (United States), the Swedish Campbell Prisma Flex and the German Braun Diapact can undergo various forms of blood purification treatment and treat acute renal failure, poisoning, severe infection, acute severe pancreatitis, liver failure, et cetera. at the bedside. This treatment has the characteristics of slow and continuous, which makes the patients have good clinical tolerance. It also has little effect on blood pressure, heart rate and another hemodynamics. More than 60 sets of infusion pump management systems provided by Abbott, Cornford from the United States, and Braun in Germany can precisely control intravenous infusion and enteral nutrient solution dripping, meeting the needs of clinical control of drug blood concentration and strict control of liquid dripping speed and quantity. In addition, it is also equipped with MAQUET Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) System, American Datascope CS100 Aortic Balloon Counterpulsation System, American GE Company ViVid-Q Bedside Doppler Ultrasound Diagnostic System, American Teddys VmaxEn Nutritional Metabolism Cart, Drager Pulmovista 500 electrical impedance imaging (EIT) system, American Carefusion company high frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV), PICCO hemodynamic monitor, Olympus OLYMPUS electronic fiber bronchoscope, Finland Datex-Ohmeda company gastric mucosal PH monitor, Premier 3000 blood gas analyzer, POCT bedside rapid immune analyzer and other equipment, fully support the clinical treatment of critically ill patients. At the same time, the Shenzhen MEDICALSYSTEM ICU clinical intelligent information system connects various monitoring equipment, ventilator parameters, clinical test reports, doctor workstations, and nurse workstations to form a local area network, which is connected to the central control station. The monitoring information about all critically ill patients is stored, reviewed and analyzed synchronously.

 

The ICU provides serves for the whole province 's critically ill patients and public emergency medical assistance, actively participates in the national public rescue work, and treats more than 1,000 critically ill patients annually. It has the ability to continuously monitor vital signs of critically ill patients, provide timely feedback on treatment, functional support for multiple organs. In the intensive care medicine field of the whole province, it is the first to develop a number of new diagnosis and treatment technologies: 1) Embedded pacemaker installation and cardiac resynchronization therapy to improve the cardiac pumping function of patients with arrhythmia and advanced heart failure; 2) Electrical impedance imaging (EIT) direct ARDS patients with ventilator settings and PEEP titration to perform individualized breathing assistance; 3) The PICCO hemodynamic system is simple, minimally invasive, and highly effective to monitor the hemodynamic parameters of critically ill patients, and guide fluid resuscitation for patients with complex shock; 4) Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) makes it possible for critically ill patients who are not suitable for moving or hemodynamically unstable to receive blood purification treatment; 5) Bedside critical ultrasound technology evaluates cardiac function, monitors lung water and systemic volume, and finds latent abdominal and pelvic lesions and lower extremity venous thrombosis; 6) Bedside electronic fiber bronchoscopy technology, strengthen airway management, perform bronchoalveolar lavage, biopsy and brushing for patients with severe lung infection and tumor; 7) Intra-aortic Bulb Pump (IABP) increases the diastolic blood pressure in the aorta, increases coronary blood supply and improves myocardial systolic function; 8) The energy metabolism cart accurately measures the patient’s energy expenditure, detects respiratory quotient, scientifically guides nutritional supplementation, and prevents nutritional imbalance; 9) High-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) has no peak pressure, reduces lung tissue shear stress damage, enhances diffusion function, and improves the prognosis of children with pulmonary dysfunction; 10) Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) technology is aimed at patients with cardiopulmonary failure who have failed conventional treatment. Carrying out ultimate assistance and life support with ECMO represents the critical care level of a hospital, a region, or even a country. Advanced medical equipment, superb medical technology, careful and responsible nursing team, and team spirit of unity and cooperation with partner departments have elevated the survival rate of critically ill patients in ICU to more than 80%, so that the extremely critically ill patients can successfully get a new life, and has repeatedly won the hospital's Critical Case Rescue Success Award. With the continuous development of new technologies and the continuous deepening of new treatment concepts, the core competitiveness of the ICU, Shandong University Qilu Hospital as a national regional intensive care medical center has gradually formed.

 

The ICU is responsible for the clinical teaching practice, postgraduate education, continuing education, and further training of the School of Medicine, Shandong University. It is the standardized training base for physicians in Shandong. In 2015, it was named the first batch of standardized resident training demonstration bases in China. The ICU offers 30 class-hour per year of "Critical Care Medicine" course for the Graduate School of Shandong University, 12 class-hour per year of the seven-year clinical medicine teaching task, 20 class-hour per year of the elective course of Critical Care Medicine of Shandong University, and 40 class-hour per year course for the School of Nursing of Shandong University. There are 1 doctoral tutor and 2 master tutors. In recent years, it has trained more than 10 doctoral candidates, more than 30 master candidates, and more than 1,000 advanced medical personnel. Since 2002, the national and Shandong provincial-level critical care medicine continuing education has been carried out, which has greatly promoted the popularization and promotion of new technologies and new advances in critical care medicine in Shandong. It held national continuing medical education projects: "Basic theory and clinical application of mechanical ventilation", "Progress in diagnosis and treatment of severe infection in ICU", "Progress in acute respiratory distress syndrome"; Shandong  continuing medical education project: "Application of Continuous blood purification technology in Critically Ill Patients", " Progress of Acute Lung Injury/Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ", "Programmed Analgesia and Sedation for Critically Ill Patients", "Qilu ECMO Forum" and "PICCO Hemodynamic Monitoring Technology Seminar Shandong". The ICU has successively won 1 second prize and 3 third prizes for scientific and technological progress of Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Commission, and 1 third prize for scientific and technological progress of Shandong Department of Health. Moreover, the ICU was the Editor-in-chief of "Guidelines for Clinical Application of Ventilators", and participated in the compilation of the nationally compiled textbook "Emergency Nursing "Study" and 7 other books. It undertakes 1 sub-project of the National Science and Technology Support Program, 7 National Natural Science Foundation of China, 10 Natural Science Foundation of Shandong, 4 Scientific and Technological Research Projects of Shandong, 3 Clinical Research Funds of Chinese Medical Association, 15 Department-level and University-level Projects and published more than 160 academic papers at home and abroad, many of which were published in "Chest", "Hypertension", "Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol", "Free Radical Bio Med", "Toxicol Appl Pharmacol" and "Shock" and other high-impact SCI professional magazine.

 

The ICU attaches great importance to academic exchanges at home and abroad. In 1998, the Shandong Provincial Critical Care Professional Committee was organized and established, which is the earliest in China. In 2002, it successfully hosted the Fifth National Critical Care Medicine Conference of the Chinese Society of Pathophysiology. In 2005, the Critical Care Medicine Branch of Shandong Medical Association was organized. In 2015, it organized and established the Critical Care Medicine Branch of Shandong Geriatrics Research Association. Each year, many doctors are selected to visit and study in the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and other countries, and to cooperate with Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of Toronto, University of California-Los Angeles and University of Chicago- Illinois. At the same time, young medical staff are actively encouraged and supported to participate in domestic and foreign academic conferences and continuing education, and go to Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Fuwai Cardiovascular Hospital, 301 Hospital, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital and Hong Kong Mary Hospital with outstanding domestic characteristics for further study. Technology and treatment concepts are integrated into the diagnosis and treatment services for critically ill patients in the ICU.

 

As the core component of the emergency rescue unit for major public health emergencies, the ICU actively responds to the call of the State and Shandong Provincial Health Commission. It successively participated in emergency rescue work such as the prevention and control of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2002, the Wenchuan earthquake relief in 2008, the Zaozhuang mine disaster in 2011, the Qingdao oil pipeline explosion in 2013, and the Pingyi gypsum mine disaster in 2015. With the outbreak of the new coronavirus in 2020, the department has organized 15 medical staff to Wuhan, Huanggang, Dezhou and other places to participate in the first-line clinical treatment of patients with new coronary pneumonia, which demonstrates the responsibility of the national regional medical center.