Critical Care Medicine 101

Abstract

An ICU is a geographically distinct area of a hospital where critically ill and injured patients undergo continuous monitoring and support of failing organ systems. The critical care team applies physiologically based interventions, monitor the response to these interventions, which then serves as the basis for further interventions. It is therefore clear that critical care medicine can only be practiced at the bedside; office based and remote “intensivists” have no place looking after critically ill patients. While a number of ICU organizational models exist the optimal model requires the frequent presence of intensivists at the patient’s bedside supported by a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals.