The Prince Charles Hospital

The Prince Charles Hospital is a major teaching hospital in Brisbane's northside with an emphasis in cardiac and respiratory medicine and cardio-thoracic surgery. It also has geriatric and rehabilitation services, elective orthopaedic services and cardiothoracic services, an in-patient psychiatric unit and a 16-bed palliative care unit.
History.
The Brisbane Chest Hospital was opened in 1954 for the treatment of tuberculosis. Due to the success of prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, the hospital had space to treat a wider variety of patients and was renamed The Chermside Hospital in 1961 to reflect its more general healthcare role.
His Royal Highness, Prince Charles, visited Brisbane in 1974 and the hospital was renamed The Prince Charles Hospital in his honour.
In 2007, a major upgrade of the hospital was completed and general medical and general surgical services have been introduced in a newly constructed building. The official opening ceremony was held the next day with the then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie as the chief guest. A new Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department was also built.
Services.
The Prince Charles Hospital is the premier cardiac service for the whole of Queensland and northern New South Wales with services in complex interventional cardiology, structural heart disease, cardiac electrophysiology and adult congenital heart disease. It is the home of one of Australia's cardiac imaging programs. The Queensland Heart Failure and Transplant Unit (QHFTU) and the Indigenous Cardiac Outreach Program (ICOP) are based at The Prince Charles Hospital.
There is a heavy emphasis on teaching, with multiple daily resident and registrar teaching sessions. It is also involved in conducting the FRACP clinical examinations which are held every year during July/August. There is a weekly teleconference of echocardiography teaching with participation of a number of hospitals in Queensland. The hospital's echocardiography department organises the Echo Australia conference which is held once a year and has developed several innovative techniques related to Numerical Modeling in Echocardiography such as ePLAR (The echocardiographic Pulmonary to Left Atrial Ratio) and The Relative Atrial Index (RAI).
For children's health, there is a paediatric emergency department, short stay paediatric unit and some paediatric outpatient services.