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, Acute Lung Injury, Serious Infections, Hypoxic Injury, Multi-organ Dysfunction, Circulatory Failure, Cardiopulmonary Failure, airway & respiratory compromise, Reversible heart & lung dysfunction, and hemodynamic instability.
Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including tracheotomy, endotracheal tube, mechanical ventilation, ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), passage of pulmonary arterial balloon flotation catheters, adial arterial catheterization, and establishing central venous access.
To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including Blood Test, Computed Axial Tomography (CT or CAT Scan), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs).
Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 9,475 practicing critical care medicine doctors. Broken out by state, critical care medicine doctor density in Alabama is 90, in Alaska is 13, in Arizona is 165, in Arkansas is 37, in California is 947, in Colorado is 157, in Connecticut is 189, in Delaware is 44, in District of Columbia is 77, in Florida is 590, in Georgia is 220, in Hawaii is 38, in Idaho is 19, in Illinois is 413, in Indiana is 171, in Iowa is 93, in Kansas is 61, in Kentucky is 113, in Louisiana is 88, in Maine is 59, in Maryland is 360, in Massachusetts is 411, in Michigan is 293, in Minnesota is 196, in Mississippi is 50, in Missouri is 273, in Montana is 17, in Nebraska is 48, in Nevada is 50, in New Hampshire is 59, in New Jersey is 323, in New Mexico is 47, in New York is 903, in North Carolina is 245, in North Dakota is 26, in Ohio is 404, in Oklahoma is 57, in Oregon is 105, in Pennsylvania is 518, in Rhode Island is 52, in South Carolina is 111, in South Dakota is 12, in Tennessee is 213, in Texas is 545, in Utah is 56, in Vermont is 24, in Virginia is 227, in Washington is 184, in West Virginia is 38, in Wisconsin is 179, and in Wyoming is 6.
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