intensive care

noun

1

: the continuous monitoring and treatment of critically ill or injured patients using special medical facilities, equipment, and services

Many of the sickest patients need intensive care, even to the point of being connected to a mechanical respirator.

—Lawrence K. Altman

2

: a designated area in a hospital providing intensive care : intensive care unit

heart patients in intensive care

… short of breath and feverish, doctors isolated him in intensive care.

—Elisabeth Rosenthal

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

an intensive-care nurse

Examples of intensive care in a Sentence

Her condition will require intensive care.

Recent Examples on the Web

What should also be appreciated is that CytoSorb® has been used in more than a quarter million treatments worldwide in the intensive care unit and in cardiac surgery, including in critically ill COVID-19 patients under U.S. FDA Emergency Use Authorization. —Steve Brozak, Forbes, 21 Jan. 2025

More:Nurse charged with abuse after multiple newborns suffer fractures in intensive care unit Platter wrote in reports that the children were afraid to leave their rooms at night to use the bathroom and would have accidents. —Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY, 18 Jan. 2025

Over 80 individuals sought medical treatment after consuming counterfeit alcohol, with at least 31 patients currently in intensive care units. —Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell, Newsweek, 16 Jan. 2025

Among the most severely injured are ones being treated for dehydration and smoke inhalation, some of whom are on oxygen at the center’s veterinary intensive care unit. —Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News, 11 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1954, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

intensive care

noun

: continuous monitoring and treatment of seriously ill patients using special medical equipment and services

also : a unit in a hospital providing intensive care

Medical Definition

intensive care

1 of 2 noun

1

: the continuous monitoring and treatment of critically ill or injured patients using special medical facilities, equipment, and services

She required intensive care and survived without sequelae.

—The Journal of the American Medical Association

2

: a designated area in a hospital providing intensive care : intensive care unit

heart patients in intensive care

a patient isolated in intensive care

He spent several days in intensive care before recovering from the overdose.

—Jerome Groopman

intensive care

2 of 2 adjective

variants also intensive-care

: providing or concerned with continuous monitoring and treatment of critically ill or injured patients using special medical facilities, equipment, and services

intensive care medicine

an intensive-care nurse

also : receiving medical care in an intensive care unit

intensive care patients

compare acute care, chronic care