What is a critical care patient?

A critical care patient is a patient that requires intense and specialized nursing care, aggressive monitoring, and the support of multiple organs to sustain their life. 

• Specialized nursing care: Critical care patients often require their own nurse or share a nurse with only one other patient. They often need medications or treatments two to four times an hour and need to be monitored at all times. These nurses are often trained to use equipment that nurses who treat less sick patients never use. 
• Aggressive monitoring: Critical care patients often have special monitors that allow doctors and nurses to monitor blood pressure, the pressure within the heart itself, and pressure within the brain every second. This allows for near-instant detection of problems and rapid adjustment of medications.
• The support of multiple organs: A critical care patient may be on a ventilator, a machine that assists the lungs. They may also be on dialysis, a machine that assists the kidneys, and a variety of devices that help the heart to pump blood through the body. 

The definition of a “critical care patient” seems complex because it is poorly defined and changes from hospital to hospital. Each hospital has different rules for what type of patient must be in an ICU and what kinds of conditions must be treated in the ICU.