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. Colorado has 164 practicing critical care medicine doctors. Broken out by city, critical care medicine doctor density in Arvada is 1, in Aurora is 26, in Boulder is 3, in Castle Rock is 1, in Centennial is 2, in Colorado Springs is 13, in Cork is 1, in Craig is 1, in Del Norte is 1, in Delta is 1, in Denver is 94, in Durango is 3, in Englewood is 12, in Estes Park is 2, in Fort Collins is 11, in Fort Morgan is 1, in Grand Junction is 7, in Greeley is 5, in Greenwood Village is 1, in Lafayette is 3, in Lakewood is 1, in Lamar is 1, in Littleton is 3, in Lone Tree is 2, in Longmont is 3, in Louisville is 2, in Loveland is 7, in Parker is 2, in Pueblo is 3, in Thornton is 1, in Trinidad is 1, in Westminster is 2, and in Wheat Ridge is 3.

Colorado is the Centennial state; having won statehood in 1876. Its capital is Denver, called the “Mile High City,” because its altitude at the state capitol steps is 5,280 feet. Colorado’s population is 4,653,023, and over half the state’s population is in the Denver metro area. Known for its Rocky Mountains and abundant outdoor sports opportunities, such as skiing, hiking, fishing and hunting, Colorado also offers tourists Pike’s Peak, the Royal Gorge, and the Red Rocks outdoor amphitheater. Denver is home to an active theater culture, a world-class symphony, and many sports activities. You can visit a gold mine, tour the state capitol building, climb a mountain, or relax in some therapeutic natural hot springs.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Colorado has a population of 4,665,177. Of this population, 1,140,002 are under the age of 18 and 462,190 are at or above the age of 65.