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, serious infections, acute lung injury, hemodynamic instability, hypoxic injury, reversible heart & lung dysfunction, multi-organ dysfunction, airway & respiratory compromise, cardiopulmonary failure, and circulatory failure.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including endotracheal tube, mechanical ventilation, tracheotomy, ecmo (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), establishing central venous access, adial arterial catheterization, and passage of pulmonary arterial balloon flotation catheters.

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including magnetic resonance imaging (mri), computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), blood test, and pulmonary function tests (pfts).

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. Arizona has 171 practicing critical care medicine doctors. Broken out by city, critical care medicine doctor density in Bullhead City is 3, in Casa Grande is 2, in Chandler is 2, in Cottonwood is 1, in Dewey is 1, in Dolan Springs is 1, in Douglas is 1, in Flagstaff is 2, in Florence is 1, in Gilbert is 3, in Glendale is 13, in Green Valley is 1, in Kingman is 2, in Mesa is 20, in Oro Valley is 1, in Page is 1, in Payson is 1, in Peoria is 6, in Phoenix is 85, in Prescott is 1, in San Luis is 1, in Scottsdale is 35, in Sierra Vista is 3, in Springerville is 1, in Sun City is 4, in Sun City West is 5, in Sun Lakes is 1, in Surprise is 3, in Tempe is 1, in Tucson is 35, in Wickenburg is 1, in Williams is 1, and in Yuma is 6.

Arizona has many famous tourist attractions and parks, including the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, which was created when the dam was built. The Grand Canyon draws millions of visitors each year, and Phoenix, Scottsdale, Flagstaff each draw their own sun-seeking winter vacationers. Visit the world-famous O.K. Corral in Tombstone. Arizona’s population is 5,939,292, and Phoenix, the capital city, is home to a majority of those people. Entertainers Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, and Tanya Tucker were born here, along with architect Frank Lloyd Wright and former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Arizona has a population of 5,939,292. Of this population, 1,535,805 are under the age of 18 and 754,345 are at or above the age of 65.