The Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute Critical Care Medicine team cares for patients with life-threatening illnesses. These include pneumonia, acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), liver failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, acute kidney failure and shock. Physicians who specialize in critical care medicine and pulmonary disease supervise our critical care teams. Physicians from related disciplines, including thoracic surgery, radiology, oncology and cardiology, work together. This lets our physicians continue to care for their patients when they need care from other specialists or have an unrelated illness.

Medical Intensive Care Units

We care for critically ill patients and patients with life-threatening illnesses in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU). The MICU provides critical care services 24 hours, 365 days a year. A highly-trained intensivist directs each patient’s care from admission to discharge. The intensivist works with other medical and surgical specialists and care teams to provide comprehensive care. Along with specialists, our MICU has state-of-the-art equipment. This allows for leading-edge and innovative care.