Who Needs to Be in an ICU?

You might think the only people who wind up in a hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) are at the brink of death and in dire need of specialized care. ICUs are designed to look after patients who need ventilators, medications to support blood pressure, high-tech treatments and close monitoring from doctors and nurses trained in critical care in order to survive.

In practice, that’s not what actually happens. One study suggests that more than half the patients admitted to the ICU have an exceedingly low risk of dying during their hospital stay.