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

Despite delays due to his extreme prematurity, which was caused by the chronic disease bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and a long 16-month hospital stay split between the neonatal intensive care unit and the pediatric intensive care unit, John continues to make progress. —David Faris, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024

Plaintiffs had argued that Abbott and Mead Johnson’s formulas — used to treat premature babies in neonatal intensive care units — raised the risk of developing NEC, and that the companies did not properly disclose that risk. —Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 1 Nov. 2024

The infant was born via emergency cesarean section at 24 weeks gestation and she was immediately intubated and admitted to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). —Vanessa Etienne, People.com, 28 Oct. 2024

Among more than 300,000 people older than 15 who received severe injuries requiring urgent surgery or intensive care, helicopter transport was associated with a lower risk of dying compared with ground transport, at 17.6% versus 19.4%, according to the study. —Jacqueline Howard, CNN, 20 Oct. 2024

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