A family member facing a medical emergency can be frightening. We understand that it's even more heartbreaking when a loved one's injury or illness is severe enough to be admitted to a critical care unit. At times like these, it's reassuring to know that a specialised team of doctors and nurses can provide the highest level of medical care.

Critical care is a specialised branch of medicine that delivers emergency care to patients in potentially life-threatening conditions. By providing timely and appropriate life-saving interventions to critically ill or injured patients, critical care has greatly reduced mortality rates.

At Narayana Health, our Critical Care Unit comprises a multidisciplinary team of experts who work collaboratively to provide best-in-class urgent care. Our Critical Care unit is technologically advanced and resource-intensive, integrating many specialities and diverse technologies, offering hope of survival to acutely and critically ill patients.

We provide 24/7 care to patients with unwavering commitment, high precision, and synchronised teamwork. 

What is the difference Between a Critical Care Unit and an Emergency Room?

Both critical care units and emergency rooms involve quick action by doctors and support staff to help a patient facing a medical emergency. As a 24-hour hospital, Narayana Health has both of these departments.

The difference between the two is that the critical care unit has more sophisticated equipment and a highly specialised team to provide continuous monitoring and support to severely injured or critically ill patients. The doctors are trained in critical care medicine to provide the utmost care to patients with life-threatening conditions. For instance, if you have cut your hand and the bleeding doesn’t stop even after first aid, you should visit an emergency room. Although you need urgent care, the situation is not life-threatening. However, the victim of a serious accident may be sent to the critical care unit.

Your visit to the emergency room may not require an overnight stay at the hospital. On the other hand, patients are admitted to the critical care unit of a hospital when they have severe or life-threatening illnesses or injuries. They could be in the hospital for several days.

Who Needs Critical Care?

Critically ill patients are admitted to critical care units. These could be in the form of trauma, medical, surgical, gynaecological or paediatric emergencies, where urgent care is required. Narayana Health's Critical Care Unit is well-equipped with the latest diagnostic, monitoring and support machines. It is staffed by agile doctors, paramedics, and staff nurses who are versatile in dealing with different kinds of emergencies.

These include:

Heart attack
Heart failure
Kidney failure
Respiratory failure
Multiple organ failure
Serious infections
Shock
Stroke
Severe injuries

Our Critical Care Unit also provides care for haemodynamic instability (hypertension / hypotension), airway or respiratory compromise, potentially lethal cardiac arrhythmias, and even in the crucial hours after major surgeries when the patient is deemed too unstable to transfer to a less intensively monitored unit.

A Well-Equipped Critical Care Unit

Our Critical Care Unit is a guarded and sterile environment with the latest equipment that helps our specialised team provide comprehensive patient care. These include:

Diagnostic Equipment

We have state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, such as bedside ultrasound, mobile X-ray, and portable chest radiography. Advanced MRI, CT scan and PET scan machines are also handy. The unit is fully equipped for bronchoscopy, colonoscopy, endoscopy and gastroscopy. Lumbar puncture equipment takes cerebrospinal fluid to determine central nervous system diseases.

Monitoring Equipment

Since the patient is critically ill, continuous monitoring is essential. Monitoring machines allow doctors to check the vital signs of the patient in real-time, including:

Heart rate
Temperature
Blood pressure
Medication intake
Oxygen saturation

These monitoring machines make a warning sound when a patient’s health metric enters the dangerous zone. This allows doctors and nurses to take immediate action. In this way, monitoring machines can save lives.

We have advanced haemodynamic machines that monitor vital signs like temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, arterial haemoglobin oxygen, and means arterial pressure. Our hemodynamic monitors include central venous catheters, pulmonary artery catheters, and arterial pulse-wave analysis.

These sophisticated monitoring machines allow doctors to take action before the patient's condition worsens.

Equipment to Sustain Life

Dialysis machines for patients with kidney failure.
BiPAP and CPAP devices for delivering air pressure for breathing.
Ventilators to help patients breathe by providing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide. It is used for patients with respiratory failure.
Suction machines to remove fluids from a patient's airway. These machines prevent airway obstruction for patients with respiratory distress.
Catheters for central line insertion for long-term drug therapy or dialysis.
Temporary pacemakers to regulate the heartbeat.
ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machines for patients with severe heart and lung conditions. ECMO provides prolonged cardiac and respiratory support by oxygenating blood outside the patient's body, giving the heart and lungs time to heal.

Resurrection Devices

Crash carts that are fully loaded with resurrection devices.
Defibrillators that give electric shocks to the heart to restore its normal rhythm in cardiac arrest patients.

Other Equipment

Our Critical Care Unit has provisions for administering intravenous medicines, fluids, and nutrition to patients. These sophisticated devices can be set to deliver precise doses of drugs and fluids, which reduces the risk of errors.

We also have feeding tubes to provide nutrition to patients who are unable to eat and catheters, which are thin and flexible tubes used to drain urine from the bladder.

A Specialised Team Trained in Critical Care

Being a 24-hour hospital, our critical care team of doctors, nurses, paramedics, and support staff works in well-coordinated shifts. We have highly qualified emergency care doctors who are part of super specialities, such as:

Neurology & Neurosurgery
Cardiology & Cardiac Surgery
Oncology
Nephrology (kidney specialist)
Hepatology (liver specialist)
Pulmonology (lung specialist)
Toxicology
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Paediatric (urgent care for newborns to adolescents)

Procedure for Critical Care

Urgent care does not begin and end in the critical care unit because emergencies can arise anywhere and everywhere. This is why Narayana Health provides coverage from pre-hospital care till the patient’s transfer to definitive care in the critical care unit.

Our ambulance services provide the first emergency services that play a vital role in saving lives. Our state-of-the-art ambulances with trained paramedics give the necessary care while the patient is in transit. They are well-equipped with:

Transport ventilator 
Defibrillator with transcutaneous pacemaker
Multipara monitoring 
Emergency drugs 
Oxygen facility

We have ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) ambulances, and our paramedics are trained for resuscitation during transit. 

Once patients arrive at our 24-hour hospital, they are taken to the triage area, where they are segregated based on the severity of their illness or injury. Our triage area is staffed by experienced emergency doctors and nurses. 

Depending on the condition, the patient is sent to the appropriate critical care area. This could be:

Coronary care unit
Postoperative care
Neonatal intensive care
Paediatric urgent care

At Narayana Health, we understand that families are worried and want regular updates on the condition of their loved ones. Our 24-hour hospital has comfortable waiting areas for families, while our staff is trained to communicate with empathy. This goes a long way in helping families cope with their loved one being in the Critical Care Unit.

At Narayana Health, we provide 24/7 services, and our critical care area is managed by a highly qualified team of consultants with DM & Fellowships in Critical Care. We are committed to providing the highest standards of care and saving lives.

Critical Care Medicine