An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a special facility within a hospital which is dedicated to treating patients who are critically ill. Patients in an ICU may be experiencing multiple organ failure, respiratory arrest, or other serious problems which require intensive monitoring. The ICU staff are specially trained to administer critical care, and there are sometimes several staffers to each patient to ensure that patients get the care they need.

Intensive care medicine focuses on the major systems of the body, including the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal tract, the central nervous system, and the respiratory tract. Intensive care providers try to keep these important bodily systems running smoothly so that the patient remains stable. As the patient's underlying condition is treated, smoothly running bodily systems will greatly improve the patient's prognosis. In a very unstable patient, ICU care may require constant adjustment of medications and treatment programs, along with a very focused and dedicated staff.

Patients will be moved into an ICU if it is clear that their conditions require constant and careful monitoring and adjustment. ICU staff can quickly make decisions for their patients to keep them comfortable and stable, and they have an extensive network of support staff and specialized equipment to assist them in their important work. ICU care may also be offered to some patients after surgery, especially if the surgery has been traumatic or the patient is at risk for complications.

A hospital may also call its ICU a Critical Care Unit, or CCU. An ICU can be a scary place for visitors, since patients are surrounded by an assortment of machines, and the environment can be very intimidating. In hospitals with adequate staffing, a staffer will usually sit down with a patient's family to familiarize them with the environment of the ICU, and that staffer may act as a liaison to keep a family up to date on a patient's condition and to answer questions. Families should be aware that the staffers in an ICU are often very busy, and they may not be able to respond to questions or concerns immediately; if you do not have a staff liaison to talk to, seek out the head or charge nurse of the ICU if you have issues which need to be addressed.

Because patients in an ICU are critically ill, the death rate can sometimes be very high. However, being committed to the ICU is far from a death sentence. The prognosis of an individual patient varies immensely, depending on his or her general condition and the problem which landed the patient in the ICU. By installing a patient on an ICU ward, hospital staff can ensure that he or she gets the best care possible, with the best chance of a full recovery.