RT Book, Section A1 Gershengorn, Hayley B. A2 Oropello, John M. A2 Pastores, Stephen M. A2 Kvetan, Vladimir SR Print(0) ID 1136418553 T1 The ICU in the Global Hospital Environment T2 Critical Care YR 1 FD 1 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071820813 LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1136418553 RD 2024/03/29 AB KEY POINTSCritical care is not and cannot be completely standardized across all institutions; the local hospital and regional health care environment necessarily impacts the role of the ICU.Critical care administration is often siloed, but may benefit from centralization into a service line, division, department, or institute.Staffing of critically ill patients must be flexible and depend on the hospital environment; intensivists may be asked to care for patients outside of the ICU and physicians without traditional intensivist pedigrees may be trained and then appropriately tasked with caring for patients in the ICU.Critical care is not just care within the ICU; rapid response/medical emergency teams, telemedicine, and regionalization of critical care can be used to advantage in certain institutional settings.ICU resources—specifically, ICU beds—are limited; optimal use of this scarce resource in each hospital environment depends on understanding the capabilities outside of the ICU, both within an individual institution and regionally.