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. Illinois has 485 practicing critical care medicine doctors. Broken out by city, critical care medicine doctor density in Alton is 6, in Armstrong is 2, in Aurora is 6, in Belleville is 6, in Berwyn is 5, in Bloomington is 6, in Blue Island is 3, in Bourbonnais is 2, in Breese is 4, in Canton is 1, in Carbondale is 4, in Carterville is 1, in Centralia is 1, in Champaign is 4, in Chgo is 1, in Chicago is 196, in Chicago Heights is 2, in Cicero is 2, in Clinton is 3, in Crystal Lake is 4, in Danville is 3, in Decatur is 7, in Deerfield is 4, in Dekalb is 1, in Des Plaines is 3, in Dixon is 2, in Du Quoin is 1, in Durand is 1, in East Alton is 1, in Effingham is 1, in Eldorado is 1, in Elgin is 8, in Elmhurst is 5, in Evanston is 22, in Fairbury is 2, in Fairview Heights is 1, in Forest Park is 1, in Franklin Park is 1, in Freeport is 2, in Galesburg is 4, in Geneva is 8, in Granite is 1, in Granite City is 3, in Greenville is 1, in Gurnee is 5, in Harvey is 2, in Hazel Crest is 3, in Herrin is 2, in Hickory Hills is 1, in Highland Park is 6, in Homewood is 3, in Joliet is 9, in La Grange is 1, in Lake Forest is 3, in Lansing is 1, in Le Roy is 2, in Libertyville is 6, in Loves Park is 1, in Marion is 1, in Mattoon is 4, in Mc Henry is 1, in Mchenry is 3, in Mokena is 1, in Moline is 1, in Monmouth is 1, in Morris is 5, in Mount Carmel is 1, in Mount Vernon is 1, in Murphysboro is 1, in Naperville is 9, in Niles is 3, in Normal is 4, in North Chicago is 6, in Oak Brook is 2, in Oak Forest is 2, in Oak Lawn is 14, in Ottawa is 1, in Palos Heights is 8, in Palos Hills is 1, in Park City is 1, in Park Ridge is 7, in Pekin is 2, in Peoria is 12, in Peru is 1, in Pontiac is 1, in Quincy is 1, in Red Bud is 1, in Rock Island is 1, in Rockford is 8, in Rosiclare is 1, in Saint Charles is 1, in Sandwich is 1, in Shelbyville is 3, in Sparta is 2, in Springfield is 16, in Urbana is 3, in Washington is 1, in Waukegan is 2, in Wheaton is 4, and in Winnetka is 1.

Most people think that Chicago, because of its size and popularity, is Illinois’ capital city, but that distinction belongs to Springfield, home of the Abraham Lincoln Museum. Illinois has hundreds of museums, numerous yearly art and ethnic festivals, a lakeshore bordering Lake Michigan, and the many national forests and parks that offers visitors camping, horseback riding, biking, kayaking, and fishing. Chicago is home to the Sears Tower, the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Adler Planetarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, and other cultural opportunities and restaurants in the Navy Pier area.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Illinois has a population of 12,763,371. Of this population, 3,172,677 are under the age of 18 and 1,523,937 are at or above the age of 65.