Intensive Care Unit / High Dependency Unit
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and High Dependency Unit (HDU) are specialized areas within a hospital for patients requiring different levels of care.
ICU (Intensive Care Unit)
- Purpose: Provides care for critically ill patients who need continuous monitoring and life support.
- Level of Care: The highest level of care available in a hospital. It is designed for patients with life-threatening conditions like multi-organ failure, severe trauma, or after complex surgeries.
- Staffing: A higher nurse-to-patient ratio (often 1:1 or 1:2). Staff includes intensive care doctors, specialized nurses, respiratory therapists, and other specialists.
- Equipment: Advanced life-support equipment such as ventilators, heart monitors, dialysis machines, and more.
- Conditions Treated:
- Severe respiratory distress or failure
- Septic shock or other life-threatening infections
- Cardiac arrest or heart failure
- Multiple organ dysfunction or failure
- Major trauma or post-surgical complications
HDU (High Dependency Unit)
- Purpose: Provides care for patients who need more monitoring and support than is available in a general ward but are not critical enough for the ICU.
- Level of Care: A step down from the ICU but higher than the general ward.
- Staffing: Still a high nurse-to-patient ratio (often 1:2 or 1:3), but typically lower than in ICU. Nurses are trained in critical care but the intensity of care is lower.
- Equipment: Less advanced than in the ICU but still includes monitoring devices and oxygen support. Patients may need close monitoring for changes in their condition or may be recovering from intensive surgery.
- Conditions Treated:
- Stable patients recovering from a critical illness or surgery
- Patients needing close monitoring for conditions like severe infections or heart conditions but not requiring full life support
- Those weaning off mechanical ventilation
