• Question: What has the average patient you get in ICU got wrong with them and what do the treatments do to make them healthy again

    Asked by anon-202417 to Raashid on 5 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Raashid Ali

      Raashid Ali answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      The level care a patient requires in a hospital is graded on a scale, ranging from level 0 to 3.

      A patient on a normal ward is generally graded as receiving care at level 0. As a patient starts to get more unwell or requires more support the level of care increases. The level of care increases to 1 for deteriorating patients or to level 2 for those requiring increased monitoring and can further escalate to level 3 where a patients requires intensive care treatment. Patient care is equally downgraded to lower levels as they get better and do not require the increased support. Patients may not climb the levels of patient care and may just stay at level 0 throughout their hospital stay, others may come straight into a hospital and require level 3 care.

      For a patient to be classed as level 3 care they may need ventilator support alone, or two of their organs (other than respiratory support) may need supporting.

      So with that very brief background and to answer your question the patients that are generally on ICU are level 3 patients that may require a ventilator to support with their oxygenation after an operation or a severe chest infection or after a transplant like a pancreas and kidney transplant. Or some patients may require level 3 support as they need medicine to support their heart and their kidneys may need help to clean the blood effectively. There are some patients that may require multiple organ support they may need respiratory support, drugs for the heart and kidney support, an example of this would be someone who has sepsis or has suffered a out of hospital cardiac arrest.

      In short ICU can have patients that have become increasingly unwell during their hospital stay or come into hospital after a serious accident or deterioration at home or after an they have had an operation or transplant at the hospital. It is designed to give that extra monitoring and provide organ support for those that require it.

Comments