Critical care medicine deals with life support or organ support for patients who are critically ill. A critical care physician diagnoses, treats, and supports patients who may be in an intensive care unit, or who may have multiple organ dysfunction. Patients who receive intensive care treatment are usually critically ill patients who are treated after major surgery and require intensive monitoring. The critical care or intensive care physician may also communicate with the patient’s primary physician, other specialists, and the critical care staff to coordinate treatment and care.
Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are Trauma, cystic fibrosis, renal failure, Liver Failure, Post-operative Care, Acute Lung Injury, Serious Infections, Hypoxic Injury, Multi-organ Dysfunction, Circulatory Failure, Cardiopulmonary Failure, airway & respiratory compromise, Reversible heart & lung dysfunction, and hemodynamic instability.
Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including tracheotomy, endotracheal tube, mechanical ventilation, ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), passage of pulmonary arterial balloon flotation catheters, adial arterial catheterization, and establishing central venous access.
To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including Blood Test, Computed Axial Tomography (CT or CAT Scan), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs).
Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 9,231 practicing critical care medicine doctors. Broken out by state, critical care medicine doctor density in Alabama is 90, in Alaska is 12, in Arizona is 162, in Arkansas is 37, in California is 940, in Colorado is 158, in Connecticut is 185, in Delaware is 44, in District of Columbia is 75, in Florida is 589, in Georgia is 210, in Hawaii is 38, in Idaho is 19, in Illinois is 406, in Indiana is 168, in Iowa is 91, in Kansas is 62, in Kentucky is 112, in Louisiana is 86, in Maine is 59, in Maryland is 357, in Massachusetts is 410, in Michigan is 288, in Minnesota is 193, in Mississippi is 47, in Missouri is 271, in Montana is 17, in Nebraska is 48, in Nevada is 49, in New Hampshire is 59, in New Jersey is 320, in New Mexico is 46, in New York is 895, in North Carolina is 242, in North Dakota is 26, in Ohio is 400, in Oklahoma is 54, in Oregon is 103, in Pennsylvania is 512, in Rhode Island is 51, in South Carolina is 109, in South Dakota is 12, in Tennessee is 210, in Texas is 538, in Utah is 55, in Vermont is 24, in Virginia is 225, in Washington is 183, in West Virginia is 36, in Wisconsin is 178, and in Wyoming is 5.
We comply with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information. Verify here.