Basic philosophy utilized in development of the intensive-care unit--coronary-care unit concept

One of the major developments in health care has been the evolution of critical-care medicine. This concept* encompasses total care of patients from the initiation of an illness or injury, through all their sophisticated care, until the patient has either recovered or succumbed. The concept of critical-care medicine has actually evolved only over the past decade. Because of its complexity, broad-based planning is imperative. This paper focuses on the steps necessary in planning for critical care or in the intensive-care units, as a part of critical-care medicine. A multidisciplinary unit is described as one of four alternative approaches. Participants in such planning for this area of patient care must include physicians, nurses and technologists, architects, biomedical and clinical engineers, biomedical technologists, and all hospital department heads who might not necessarily be directly involved in this kind of patient care, but who do, in fact, participate in some fashion. Our obligation is obvious, and the need to familiarize all involved with this concept of patient care and its urgency are discussed.