critical care

noun

1

: the monitoring and treatment of critically ill or injured patients : intensive care

Critical care involves the use of life-sustaining, high-technology medicine catering to a patient population that extends to both extremes of age. In adult ICUs, the average age is increasing and is now commonly well over 60 years.

—Simon Finfer and Jean-Louis Vincent

2

: a designated area of a hospital providing critical care : intensive care unit

The death toll rose from six to at least 12, with scores of people needing hospital treatment and some in critical care.

—Heather Brooke

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

critical-care nursing

a critical-care bed

see also critical care unit

Examples of critical care in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Part of that growth is due to a $600 million critical care building that opened in 2021 for patients with cancer, heart ailments and other complex conditions. —Sharon Coolidge, The Enquirer, 2 Apr. 2024

Babies and critical care patients were among those who had to be moved after power went out in part of the hospital, including a building that housed neonatal intensive care. —Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024

And finally, back to nature In the past decade, more than 800 orphaned, sick or injured manatees have been taken to critical care centers. —Jason Gulley Catrin Einhorn, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is under critical care weeks after undergoing surgery for early prostate cancer. —Escher Walcott, Peoplemag, 12 Feb. 2024

Flu began to take off around Thanksgiving in Louisiana, which has one of the worst outbreaks in the country, said Dr. David Janz, the director of medical critical care services at University Medical Center New Orleans. —Erika Edwards, NBC News, 3 Jan. 2024

The ensuing outage doesn’t appear to affect any of the systems that provide direct, critical care to patients. —Kim Bellware, Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2024

Austin's health: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was admitted to a critical care unit after being hospitalized for a bladder issue. —Elizabeth Both, NBC News, 12 Feb. 2024

Bear developed similar symptoms in December, Diehl said, and was in critical care. —Aria Bendix, NBC News, 18 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1956, in the meaning defined at sense 1