If your loved one has been admitted to the intensive care unit of ahospital, this means that his or her illness is serious enough to require the most careful degree of medical monitoring and the highest level of medical care. The intensive care unit (ICU) may also be referred to as the critical care unit or the intensive care ward.
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Your loved one may be medically unstable, which means that his or her condition could change unexpectedly and may potentially rapidly become worse.
Normally, people who are very sick only need to stay in the ICU for a short period of time, until their illness becomes stable enough for transfer into the regular hospital ward. In the meantime, you may want to know what to expect while your loved one is being cared for in the ICU. You may also want to know under what circumstances you should anticipate that your loved one will be stable enough to be discharged from the ICU and admitted to a standard hospital ward.
Types of Intensive Care Units
The ICU is a part of the hospital where patients receive close medical monitoring and care. Some hospitals also have specialized ICUs for certain types of patients:
Why Do Some People Need to Be Admitted to the ICU?
There are a number of different reasons that warrant admission to the ICU, and your loved one likely has one or more of these conditions:
Type of Extra Care Provided
The ICU allows healthcare providers, such as doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, therapists, and specialists, to provide a level of care that they may not be able to provide in another setting:
More Restrictions for Visitors
For a number of reasons, visitors are much more restricted in the ICU than in the regular hospital room. Some of these reasons include:
When Will Your Loved One Get Discharged?
Your loved one will most likely improve enough to be discharged from the ICU. Some hospitals have a step-down unit, which provides an intermediate level of care that is less intense than the ICU while providing closer care than the regular unit. Criteria for discharge from the ICU include extubation, stabilization of vital signs, improved alertness, less frequent need to adjust IV fluid, electrolytes, and medications, and overall medical stability.
A Word From Verywell
If your loved one has been admitted to the intensive care unit, you are likely under a great deal of stress as you experience uncertainty and unpredictability.
Not every patient is the same, and your loved one is unique. His or her path to recovery may be smoother or more complicated than that of others, and often, the unpredictability of illnesses that cause patients to need ICU care make the whole prognosis somewhat unpredictable.
Despite the serious circumstances that warrant admission to the ICU, most patients are able toleave the ICUand continue care on a standard hospital ward for a short time, and eventually recover from their illness,leaving the hospitalto go home.
5 Sources
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National Library of Medicine.Unconscious Patient.University of California at San Francisco Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care.ICU Treatments.Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Foundation.Staff in the ICU.Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.The Intensive Care Unite: Visitors' Guide.Bion, Julian, and Anna Dennis.ICU admission and discharge criteria', in Andrew Webb and others (eds).Oxford Textbook of Critical Care, 2 edn, Oxford Textbook, 2016. doi:10.1093/med/9780199600830.003.0020
National Library of Medicine.Unconscious Patient.
University of California at San Francisco Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care.ICU Treatments.
Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Foundation.Staff in the ICU.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.The Intensive Care Unite: Visitors' Guide.
Bion, Julian, and Anna Dennis.ICU admission and discharge criteria', in Andrew Webb and others (eds).Oxford Textbook of Critical Care, 2 edn, Oxford Textbook, 2016. doi:10.1093/med/9780199600830.003.0020
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