Profile

Under the leadership of former Director Lijun Liu  and  current Director Jianjun Zhu ,combined with the efforts of general practitioners, the Department of Emergency & Intensive Care Medicine emphasizes the provision of evidence-based, high-quality care/treatments for emergency  and  critically-ill patients  and  promotes three functions of "Prehospital First Aid, Emergency  and  Intensive Care Unit".

The team includes 274 medical staff members (56 doctors  and  218 nurses), including 6 chief physician, 16 associate chief physicians; 7 individuals with doctoral degrees  and  50 individuals with masters degrees.

The department is also the educational center for clinical masters degrees (since 2002)  and  doctors degrees (since 2016) in emergency medicine at Soochow University.

Academic status

l  Key department for clinical medical in Suzhou, since 2005;

l  Key discipline in Suzhou, since 2015;

l  Emergency care quality control center in Suzhou, since 2008;

l  Key department for clinical medical (mergency medicine) in Jiangsu Province, since 2016;

l  Regional Trauma center in Jiangsu Province, since 2017;

l  Key department for clinical medical (critical care medicine) in Jiangsu Province, since 2020;

Clinical Services

l  Emergency Care

Our Emergency Department offers full-service  and  state-of-the-art emergency care around the clock. Our doctors  and  nurses are trained to hle any medical emergency. All Emergency Department physicians are certified by the Board of Emergency Medicines Committee.

l  Poisoning Care

With the use of bedside peritoneal dialysis, hemoperfusion, plasma exchange,  and  other advanced technology, drugspoisons in the patients blood can be quickly removed, thus quickly ending their toxicity to the target organ. This allows the patients symptoms to be alleviated or removed  and  improves treatment results. The emergency staff has accumulated considerable experience in the treatment of poisoning associated with exposure to the following: organophosphates, paraquat, mushrooms, hydrofluoric, contaminated food, sleeping pills, nitrites, barium sulfate, cyanide, lead, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, snake bites, bee venom  and  other kinds of poisoning.

l  Trauma Care

Trauma care is mainly responsible for curing life-threatening diseases caused by unexpected accidents  and  public injury emergencies.

For unpredictable, urgent,  and  multi-systemic diseases, the Trauma Center implements integrated management of “Emergency-Surgical -ICU,”. This kind of management combines the first aid (120), long-distance transfer, hospital emergency, relevant surgery departments,  and  intensive care unit together, providing a seamless chain of treatment. By caring for the patients first, providing help at critical times,  and  holding the concept of “time is life”, Trauma Center strives to provide patients with timely, effective,  and  comprehensive treatment with a quick turnaround. Our center has established cooperative relations with many hospitals inside  and  outside the province. We formed a trauma treatment network covering the surrounding areas, thus greatly improving the overall quality of regional trauma treatment  and  the quality of life for trauma patients.

l  Chest Pain  and  Heart Attack Care

When it comes to heart attacks, promptly receiving the right treatment is of utmost importance. Not every emergency room can offer you the same state-of-the-art diagnostic testing  and  on-site PCI options that are available at our Chest Pain Center that was certified by the Certification Committee of China Chest Pain Center in 2016.

l  Stroke Care

Knowing the signs  and  symptoms of a stroke is the first step in ensuring that medical help is immediately received. Each minute a stroke goes untreated,  and  blood flow to the brain continues to be blocked; a person loses about 1.9 million neurons, which could have a negative effect on a person’s memory, speech, movement, visual sense, deglutition,  and  others. Our team, certified by the Stroke Prevention Project Committee  and  National Health  and  Family Planning Commission as Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center in 2018, helps to ensure that strokes are recognized so that together we can save more lives.

l  Intensive Care Unit

Since ICU was putoperation in March 2000, it underwent two stages of development  and  expansion. Currently, our intensive care unit has 39 beds for patients with life-threatening conditions. There are also 29 beds outside ICU for patients in need of continuous monitoring due to potentially life-threatening conditions.

Advanced Technologies:

v  Nervous system: bedside monitoring cerebral blood flow by Transcranial Doppler, bedside ultrasound measurement of optic nerve sheath diameter, bedside video EEG monitoring, EEG  and  BIS index monitoring, near-infrared spectroscopy for monitoring cerebral oxygen saturation, retrograde jugular venous oxygen saturation monitoring, intracranial pressure monitoring, multimodal brain function monitoring.

v  Circulatory system: bedside echocardiography, transesophageal ultrasonography, central venocentesis, arterial catheterization, ultrasound-guided vascular puncture  and  volume assessment, hemodynamic monitoring by pulmonary artery catheter, PICCO, EV1000, intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

v  Respiratory system: high-flow oxygen therapy, non-invasive  and  invasive mechanical ventilation, prone ventilation, lung retention technology, respiratory mechanical monitoring, cricothyroid membrane puncture, percutaneous tracheotomy, bronchoalveolar lavage.

v  Blood purification: continuous renal replacement therapy, hemoperfusion, plasmapheresis, heparin,  and  citrate anticoagulation.

v  Nutritional support: Enteral  and  parenteral nutritional support, basal energy metabolism measurement.

Research Directions

l  Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

l  Sepsis

l  Severe trauma

Research Achievements

The department has published over 100 papers, including over 30 SCI papers. It has received funding for 2 projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as support for 2 projects at the provincial  and  ministerial level  and  14 projects at the municipal level. Additionally, it has been honored with 2 awards at the provincial  and  ministerial level  and  7 awards at the municipal level. Furthermore, it has successfully obtained 3 national invention patents  and  16 utility model patents.

International Cooperation

By October 2018, about 8 medical practitioner, including Professor Lijun Liu  and  Professor Jianjun Zhu, had gone to the medical center of Strasbourg university ,  and  medical center of Grenoble-Alps university to study intensive care  and  treatment of multiple injuries. 4 nurses went to France for short-term study. It has established a long-term cooperative relationship with French Partners. One practitioner had one year study in USA. Director Liu won the title of Advanced Individual in International Exchange in 2022. Due to the tradition of Sino-French  and  international communication in the department, there are many bilingual talents in the department,  and  the development of the department keeps pace with The tmes.

Data Updated until Jul 2024