In medicine, critical condition is the worst physical state a patient can be in and still be alive. In most cases, this means that the patient is in an intensive care unit (ICU) and that the chance of death within 24 hours is high. There are several other ratings often used by hospitals, but their definitions are inconsistent. Such terms are mostly generated for the benefit of news media, and doctors rarely use use the phrases in their daily business, preferring to deal with medical problems in greater detail. Medicine on the Web NLM (National Library of Medicine, contains resources for patients and healthcare professionals) Virtual Hospital (digital health sciences library by the University of Iowa) Online Medical Dictionary Collection of links to free medical resources Categories: Medicine | Health ... In semantics, the patient is the passive part of a process. ... Intensive care medicine or critical care medicine is concerned with providing greater than ordinary medical care and observation to people in a critical or unstable condition. ... In Western culture, skeletons are often the symbol of death. ... A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ... The news media is a term used to describe print media (newspapers, magazines); broadcast media (radio stations, television stations, television networks), and often Internet-based media (World Wide Web pages, weblogs). ...

A common progression might look like this:

• Critical condition – high risk of death within 24 hours
• Serious condition – reduced risk of death within 24 hours, but requiring frequent observation
• Stable condition – no major fluctuation in vital signs
• Good condition – little significant injury, patient may be discharged shortly

However, a range of different terms are used, including things like extremely critical condition, critical but stable condition, serious but stable condition, satisfactory condition, and others. Definition varies between hospitals, and it is even possible for a patient to be upgraded or downgraded simply by being moved from one place to another, with no change in actual physical state.

References

• (October 18, 1999). What does it mean when a patient is in "critical" or "serious" condition? The Straight Dope.