Participation as a member of, or consultant to, the hospital's Ethics Committee is desirable. The practice of Critical care medicine is hospital-based, dedicated to and defined by the needs of critically ill patients. Those patients who are at risk for physiologic decompensation and thus require constant monitoring and the ability to provide immediate intervention by the intensive care team to prevent adverse occurrences. Critically ill patients have special needs for monitoring and life support which must be provided by a team, including a physician with the knowledge base, technical skills, time commitment, and physical presence to provide ongoing and titrated care. This care must be continuous and proactive in nature, assuring that the patient is managed in a safe, humane, and effective manner, utilizing finite resources in a fashion designed to provide a high quality of care and optimal outcome.
Critical care is patient driven and can be provided in a variety of settings.
C. Critical Care Services Critical care medicine physician services must be provided by intensivists, who are individuals formally trained and capable of providing such services, and who are free from competing obligations, such as operating room or office responsibilities. The relationship of this organized critical care service to other hospital departments and services must be defined in the hospital's overall organization. For example, trauma and coronary care services may be organized separately from general medical-surgical critical care services. When more than one critical care service exists, there should be a forum for the interaction between these services to efficiently coordinate the distribution of resources, unit policies and procedures, quality improvement, and other common concerns. The need for each of these services will vary depending on the level of each unit a , but all four will be required to some extent in all intensive care settings.