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
Simon Finfer and Jean-Louis Vincent2
: 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 nounHeather Brookecritical-care nursing
a critical-care bed
see also critical care unit
Examples of critical care in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In part, routine critical care for the very, very old and very, very prematurely born reflects a strong cultural pressure against assigning relative value to any individual life.
—Christine Henneberg, The Atlantic, 24 June 2025
That’s 40,000+ flights and the pilot recalls the first one
The critical care air medical transport service is celebrating 40 years of serving patients who require immediate care at specialized medical facilities.
—Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 31 May 2025
On Sunday, Israel struck the last major hospital providing critical care in northern Gaza after ordering an evacuation.
—Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy, Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2025
But for a different take, there are sleep experts like Dr. Justin Fiala, a pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.
—Kameryn Griesser, CNN Money, 26 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for critical care
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Christine Henneberg, The Atlantic, 24 June 2025
That’s 40,000+ flights and the pilot recalls the first one
The critical care air medical transport service is celebrating 40 years of serving patients who require immediate care at specialized medical facilities.
—Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 31 May 2025
On Sunday, Israel struck the last major hospital providing critical care in northern Gaza after ordering an evacuation.
—Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy, Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2025
But for a different take, there are sleep experts like Dr. Justin Fiala, a pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.
—Kameryn Griesser, CNN Money, 26 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for critical care
Cite this Entry
“Critical care.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/critical%20care. Accessed 6 Jul. 2025.
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