Critical Care Medicine — A New Specialty?

Abstract

Recently, controversy has surrounded the field of critical care medicine, as major medical specialties have competed for the rights to this new discipline. Critical care medicine attracted attention in the early 1980s, when more stringent regulations of third-party reimbursement and health care motivated physicians to protect their access to the resources of the intensive care unit (ICU). But no one then or now has had a clear vision of whether critical care medicine involves a distinct group of physicians. Critically ill patients account for a substantial percentage of hospital practice, and critical care medicine has therefore been considered an extension . . .