A period of time within a Hospital Provider Spell during which a PATIENT receives critical care.

For PATIENTS treated in 'neonatal facilities', that is, in WARDS with a CRITICAL CARE UNIT FUNCTION of 13, 14 or 15, critical care PATIENTS include:

For PATIENTS treated in 'adult facilities' or 'other facilities', that is, WARDS with a CRITICAL CARE UNIT FUNCTION of 01-03, 05-12, 90 or 91, the following applies;

• Outreach activity and resuscitation conducted outside designated critical care areas should not be recorded as a CRITICAL CARE PERIOD. The only exception is outreach activity involving the delivery of Level 2 or Level 3 care to a PATIENT in a non standard location for a period of more than four hours prior to agreed admission to a critical care bed. This exception may be recorded as a CRITICAL CARE PERIOD, using a temporary location and the CRITICAL CARE LEVEL National Code 02 'Level 2' or 03 'Level 3'.
• 
  
• A new CRITICAL CARE PERIOD starts when the PATIENT is admitted to a critical care location regardless of CRITICAL CARE LEVEL. Repeated admissions to the same unit, transfers to a different critical care location and transfers from a non-standard location to a critical care unit within the same Hospital Provider Spell trigger a new CRITICAL CARE PERIOD identified by different start dates or CRITICAL CARE UNIT FUNCTIONS. A change of Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) or brief transfers for investigation or treatment do not end the CRITICAL CARE PERIOD.
• 
  
• A CRITICAL CARE PERIOD ends when the PATIENT is discharged from the critical care location or dies or the care that is being delivered in a non-standard location (see below) is CRITICAL CARE LEVEL National Code 00 'Level 0' or 01 'Level 1'.
• 
  
• Critical care locations are described by CRITICAL CARE UNIT FUNCTION and UNIT BED CONFIGURATION. Critical Care beds may include occasional non-standard locations using a ward area or operating department when conventional critical care beds are not available. Non standard locations may only be recorded if the CRITICAL CARE LEVEL is National Code 02 'Level 2' or 03 'Level 3' and the delivery of care is greater than four hours.
• 
  
• The type of ORGAN SYSTEM SUPPORTED is recorded and the duration of each organ system support is calculated from the ACTIVITY PROPERTY EFFECTIVE DATE and the ACTIVITY PROPERTY END DATE.
• 
  
• A CRITICAL CARE PERIOD does not include the following:
  a. Surgical and anaesthetic intra-operative care
  b. Post-operative care within an operating department except where level 2 or level 3 care are provided for more than 4 hours
  c. Cardiac (coronary) Care
  d. Imaging procedures
  e. Endoscopy procedures

Commissioning Data Set Transmission

• The CRITICAL CARE PERIOD may overlap Episodes, i.e. the CRITICAL CARE START DATE may precede the start of the CONSULTANT/ MIDWIFE / NURSE Episode; similarly the CRITICAL CARE PERIOD may not have ended by the end of the Episode.
• 
  
• The Data Elements CRITICAL CARE START DATE, CRITICAL CARE LOCAL IDENTIFIER and CRITICAL CARE UNIT FUNCTION must always be present.
• 
  
• Where applicable, Support Days and Critical Care Level Days should only be entered when the CRITICAL CARE PERIOD is finished and the CRITICAL CARE DISCHARGE DATE is entered.
• 
  
• The CRITICAL CARE DISCHARGE DATE must be on or before the discharge date for the Hospital Provider Spell.

This class is also known by these names:

Context	Alias
plural	CRITICAL CARE PERIODS