Admitting patients to critical care

You can admit patients to critical care, for example, a Critical Care Unit (CCU), an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), or an Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU).

Patients are admitted to critical care when their condition:

  • Is serious, potentially life-threatening

  • Requires intensive monitoring, treatment, and support

    You can't adequately provide this care on a regular hospital ward. This care often involves specialised equipment and personnel to support failing organs or other vital functions.

For example, you might admit a patient to critical care:

Admitting patients to critical care on a mobile

You can't do this on a mobile.

Admitting patients to critical care on a desktop

  1. From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Patient admin > Adult Critical Care Periods > Admit to Critical Care.

  2. Enter the date and time the patient was admitted to critical care.

    This defaults to the current date and time, but you can admit patients retrospectively.

    The following fields are mandatory.

  3. From Admission Source, select the source of the admission.

    For example, the same hospital site, or a non-hospital site.

  4. From Admission Location, select where the patient was admitted from.

    For example, theatre and recovery, or an emergency care department.

  5. From Admission Type, select the type of admission.

    For example, unplanned transfer in, or a planned local surgical admission.

  6. Select Create.

  1. From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Patient admin > Paediatric Critical Care Periods > Admit to Critical Care.

  2. Enter the date and time the patient was admitted to critical care.

    This defaults to the current date and time, but you can admit patients retrospectively.

  3. From Patient Age Category, select if the patient is a paediatric patient, or neonatal patient.

    A neonatal patient is a patient who was born in the last 28 days.

  4. For neonatal patients, enter the gestation length of the patient in weeks.

  5. Select Create.

If you admitted a patient to critical care in error, you can delete that critical care period.

  1. From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Patient admin.

  2. For adult patients, select Adult Critical Care Periods.

    For paediatric and neonatal patients, select Paediatric Critical Care Periods

  3. Select a critical care period that the patient was admitted to in error.

  4. Select Delete Critical Care Period.

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