Fairview Southdale Hospital is committed to taking exceptional care of patients. That’s why our medical staff includes a full complement of critical care specialists and hospitalists who care for patients with complex medical needs around the clock.

As a family member or friend, you can be assured of the highest level of care for your loved one with complex acute medical and surgical conditions. Critical care doctors treat patients who are critically ill and in an intensive care unit. Such patients have life threatening conditions and may require support of a breathing machine (ventilator) to sustain their breathing, dialysis for acute kidney failure, or intravenous medications to help a failing heart/circulation, to treat abnormal blood pressure or preserved brain function.

We partner with University of Minnesota Physicians (UMP) board-certified critical care doctors who bring advanced training and experience in caring for patients with the following conditions:

•     Heart, artery or vein conditions
•     Lung and breathing conditions, such as acute respiratory failure,  acute respiratory distress syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma or severe pneumonia
•     Severe infections (Sepsis)
•     Kidney injury or failure
•     Multiple organ failure
•     Coma and other acute neurological conditions
•     Life threatening bleeding, liver failure, life threatening intoxication
•     Post surgical patients (heart, brain or other high risk surgery)

Who is a critical care or intensivist doctor?
Critical care medicine is a branch of medicine that specializes in the care of the sickest patients. These patients are hospitalized in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and may require complex medical support with machines (i.e., ventilators), intensive or complex monitoring and/or the use of potent intravenous medications. Patients in the ICU typically need close monitoring and help for all their basic needs. They are cared for by critical care physicians who are board-certified doctors specializing in critical care medicine. These physicians have received advanced training in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of life threatening and/or complex medical or surgical conditions. 

Critical care doctors at the hospital, admitting
Your primary doctor will work with our critical care doctors to admit you or your loved one to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. The critical care doctors will manage the care of the sickest patient during their ICU stay until the patient is stable enough to leave the ICU. At this point, the care of the patients is transferred back to the primary care physicians or to a hospitalist. Post surgical patients are typically co-managed by the surgeon and the critical care specialist during their ICU stay. Together, they manage patient care to provide the best treatment options possible. Patients are admittied quickly and our staff work around the clock to create an environment that promotes a speedy recovery.

Meet our intensivists
Our intensivist team is led by Alain Broccard, MD, medical director of critical care and professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Fairview Southdale Hospital is providing cutting edge state of the art critical care in partnership with University of Minnesota Physicians. The intensivists working in the Fairview Southdale Hospital ICU are currently all board-certified in internal medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care  Medicine and are faculty at the University of Minnesota Medical School. In addition, our ICU physicians bring advanced training or certificates of advanced qualifications (CAQ) in respiratory, cardiac, neurological diseases or trauma management. They are committed to providing the best possible care and experience in partnership with Fairview Southdale Hospital ICU staff.

Click here to meet our intensivists.

Want to know more?
For more information contact:

Alain Broccard, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School
Medical Director of Critical Care
Fairview Southdale Hospital
6401 France Avenue So.
Edina, MN 55435
Phone: 952-924-8334
ICU Fax: 952-924-8390
Abrocca1@fairview.org