Since 1 January 2020, the CPU has been integrated into the UKU's Central Interdisciplinary Emergency Department. The CPU, which was founded in 2010, has a triage unit, several monitor-monitored examination cubicles, 12 monitor beds, 2 isolation rooms and a shock room, as well as appropriate equipment (e.g. for laboratory tests, ECG, cardiac ultrasound, chest CT, cardiac catheterisation, etc.) for the emergency care of critically ill patients. Furthermore, the decisive structural, spatial and personnel interfaces to the cardiac and thoracic surgery, neurology, internal emergency medicine, gastroenterology and radiology (emergency CT) specialities important for cardiac medicine are realised here.

Every year, over 5000 emergency patients with cardiovascular diseases present to the CPU, mainly with acute conditions such as heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, aortic dissections and cardiac arrhythmias. Standardised and certified procedures (such as the initial urgent triage by appropriately trained specialist staff) ensure that life-threatening heart conditions can be diagnosed and treated without delay. For this purpose, specially qualified/certified assistant physicians, specialists and senior physicians (with the specialist titles "Internal Medicine and Cardiology") are available around the clock in shifts to provide specialist supervision and thus ensure guideline-compliant interdisciplinary care.

Once the diagnosis and emergency treatment have been completed and the further treatment plan has been determined, the patient is immediately transferred to an appropriately equipped and structured cardiology ward in the Centre for Internal Medicine for further treatment and monitoring. Depending on the clinical picture and severity of the illness, this is the CPU Therapy Unit with 22 beds, the Heart Failure Unit with 6 beds or the Internal Intensive Care Unit (17 beds). These wards, which are equipped with state-of-the-art monitoring, diagnostic and therapy units, are also staffed in shifts exclusively by qualified and certified doctors, nurses and assistants and are located in close proximity to the cardiac catheterisation laboratories and important functional areas such as echocardiography, cardiac MRI, electrocardiography, pacemaker/defibrillator therapy, spiroergometry and lung function.

The CPU is primarily used for the rapid and efficient clarification of patients with unclear chest pain. This - very common - symptom can be caused by a variety of illnesses, the severity of which ranges from trivial to life-threatening. Typical and immediately recognisable clinical pictures with accompanying chest pain are heart attack, pulmonary embolism, acute diseases of the aorta (aortic aneurysm, aortic dissection) and cardiac arrhythmia. In addition, a large number of other diseases also cause chest pain, such as lung and heart muscle inflammation and diseases of the chest wall (muscular and skeletal system) and oesophagus.
Against this background, the need for a structured and standardised diagnostic and therapeutic process becomes clear, as this is the only way to identify relevant clinical pictures as quickly as possible and prevent potential harm to patients.
However, cardiac emergencies are not only characterised by chest pain, but can also cause other symptoms such as shortness of breath, palpitations or fainting. For this reason, all patients suspected of having such an event are evaluated in the CPU and treated in accordance with the guidelines.

The certification and quality criteria required to use the designation "Chest Pain Unit" were first defined and summarised in Germany by the German Society of Cardiology (DGK) in 2008. In the meantime, it has been shown that the existence of a CPU that fulfils these requirements leads to a measurable improvement in the care of cardiac emergencies, so that a reduction in the mortality rate of these patients has even been achieved. Consequently, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) now requires the existence of a certified CPU in order for a hospital to be recognised as part of the structured emergency care system. At Ulm University Hospital, the CPU of the Department of Internal Medicine II successfully passed the demanding certification process back in 2010.

Originally, the CPU at Ulm University Hospital was integrated as an independent unit into the internal medicine emergency department, which was located in the ward block of the Centre for Internal Medicine at Oberer Eselsberg, as part of its certification. The relocation of the UKU's Internal Medicine Emergency Department and Chest Pain Unit to the Emergency Department of the Department of Surgery meant that a Central Interdisciplinary Emergency Department (ZINA) was established for the first time at the University Hospital in the new building of the Department of Surgery. The certified Chest Pain Unit of the University Heart Centre Ulm remains structurally and organisationally unchanged in these premises under the management of the Department of Internal Medicine II.