The Critical Care Medicine team provides comprehensive, compassionate and quality critical care services around the clock in the cardiothoracic intensive care units at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Our board-certified physicians have unique training in critical care and perioperative/critical care echocardiography. They work in various settings including the CTICU, the operating rooms, and the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU).
Clinical
We provide critical care services to ~1,000 cardiac surgery patients per year and to a portion of the >1,200 thoracic surgery cases performed annually. We are proud to work with one of the highest-volume and highest-ranking cardiothoracic surgery departments in the country and the world. We have a busy heart failure program that includes cardiac transplantation, and a robust mechanical circulatory support program. Our institution is recognized by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) as a Gold Level Center of Excellence. In addition, our intensivists manage a variety of support devices including intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABPs), durable and temporary ventricular assist devices (VADs), and all forms (veno-venous and veno-arterial) of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Our faculty are core members of the Cardiogenic Shock Response Team and participate in consults within and outside of the institution on a regular basis.
At NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, our CTICU is comprised of a 20-bed, closed unit. Our multidisciplinary team includes world-class physicians, nurses and physician assistants, as well as anesthesiology and general surgery residents and critical care medicine fellows. We work closely with allied professionals from clinical pharmacy, nutrition, social work, respiratory therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.
At NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, we staff an eight-bed, closed ICU caring for ~300 cardiac and thoracic surgery patients per year.
Education
Residency Rotation: The goal of this rotation is to provide anesthesiology residents with clinical experience in the critical care management of patients undergoing cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, and with all forms of shock. This clinical experience is supplemented with formal and informal didactics, procedural instruction, and guided independent study. With the completion of this rotation, trainees demonstrate proficiency in caring for patients with complicated medical problems and surgical procedures in a compassionate manner. This includes ventilator management, pacemakers, extracorporeal support, sedation and pain management, postoperative complications, and end-of-life care.
The Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine Fellowship is an ACGME-accredited, year-long training program that provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary education in adult critical care medicine. It is currently approved for three positions per year. Our program provides an unparalleled fellowship experience. Fellow rotations include four months in the CTICU, three months in the SICU, one month in the MICU, one month in the neuro ICU and elective opportunities in the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center ICU, nephrology, infectious disease, palliative care, and other relevant specialties. The size of our program allows us to provide an individualized curriculum to meet the unique needs of each fellow. In addition to an outstanding clinical experience, fellows have the opportunity to participate in education and research. Fellows also have the option to participate in one of three focus tracks: administrative, research or education. Graduates of the fellowship are superbly prepared for independent practice in any ICU environment.
Members of the Critical Care Medicine team are active in a number of research domains including assessment of sedative and opioid prescribing in the ICU, staffing models for critical care, improving delivery of ECMO, and optimization of transfusion practices.
Faculty
Natalia Ivascu Girardi, MD
Executive Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs
Medical Director, Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit
Stephen J. (Butch) Thomas, M.D. Professor of Anesthesiology
Professor of Medical Ethics in Clinical Medicine
Sheida Tabaie, MD
Assistant Chief of Critical Care Anesthesiology
Medical Director, Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU)
Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology
