HDU vs ICU
The main difference between intensive care and high dependency care is the nurse to patient ratio. Usually an ICU patient requires one to one nursing care, whilst a high dependancy patient requires one nurse to every two patients. In contrast, on a normal ward two qualified nurses often care for up to 30 patients between them.
Whether a patient requires 1:1 or 1:2 nursing care depends on many factors including the number and nature of the organ support therapies they are receiving.
Some hospitals have separate intensive care and high dependency units. Other hospitals have combined units with a mixture of patients in one location. In the latter case, a patient may ‘step down’ from being an ICU patient to being a HDU patient without moving units. They may move bed space to facilitate 1:2 care.
Comments are closed