Intensive care bed

Intensive care bed in a clinic (2011)

An intensive care bed is a bed for intensive medical care of patients in hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and nursing homes. Intensive care beds are characterized by intensive medical care and medical care around the clock, as well as the possibility of connecting clinical devices such as B. ECG monitoring, ventilators, syringe pumps or dialysis machines. People in a vegetative state always lie in intensive care beds. As is usual with hospital beds , the lying surface is adjustable in several axes. The word intensive care bed came into common parlance during the COVID-19 crisis of 2020.

In 2018, 1160 hospitals in Germany had a total of 28,031 intensive care beds. In relation to the number of inhabitants, this is the majority in Europe. 25,000 of them have ventilation options. In Germany, setting up intensive care beds is particularly lucrative for hospitals.

COVID-19

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany , the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine DIVI , the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the German Hospital Society (DKG) started the Germany-wide data platform DIVI for intensive care beds in mid-March 2020 , with almost all of them of around 1200 German hospitals with intensive care units report their occupied and free beds. The database distinguishes three categories relevant for the treatment of Covid-19:

Low care : ventilation with a face mask is possible on the bed, especially support for normal breathing with oxygen.
High care refers to an intensive care bed with a machine via a pushed into the trachea tube pressure builds up in the lungs and completely takes over the ventilation. The patient is put into an artificial coma .
ECMO ( extracorporeal membrane oxygenation ), also known as “artificial lung”. This machine treats the patient's blood outside of his / her body (extracorporeal), i. H. it removes carbon dioxide and adds oxygen, and then pumps it back into the body. Patients whose lungs are severely damaged need this complex treatment.

Others

Psychiatric intensive care beds are used in psychiatry . They mainly serve to fix the patient .

Web links

Christian Waydhas et al: Recommendations on the structure and equipment of intensive care units - background text -. (pdf; 1.3 MB) German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), October 2, 2017 .; accessed on April 9, 2020
German clinics now have 40,000 intensive care beds. In: Spiegel Online . April 2, 2020.; accessed on April 9, 2020
From Germany to Ireland: There are so many intensive care beds in different countries. In: stern.de . April 9, 2020.; accessed on April 9, 2020

Individual evidence

↑ intensive care beds. In: Information system for federal health reporting. March 20, 2019, accessed March 26, 2020 (Glossary).
↑ Ute Bölt: Statistical hospital data: Basic data of the hospitals 2017 . In: Hospital Report 2019 . Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-662-58224-4 , pp. 247-270 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-662-58225-1_17 .
↑ ^a ^b Kai Biermann and others: How many intensive care beds are there in my region? In: Zeit Online . April 1, 2020, accessed April 9, 2020 .
↑ Jörg Blech: Are the emergency beds enough? In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 2020, p. 45 ( online - March 14, 2020 ).
↑ On April 1, 2020, there were reports from 912 hospitals. According to this, 10,340 occupied intensive care beds were available, of which 1,853 (18%) were occupied with severely Covid-19 patients.

[1] intensive care beds. In: Information system for federal health reporting. March 20, 2019, accessed March 26, 2020 (Glossary).

[2] Ute Bölt: Statistical hospital data: Basic data of the hospitals 2017 . In: Hospital Report 2019 . Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-662-58224-4 , pp. 247-270 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-662-58225-1_17 .

[zeit-3] Kai Biermann and others: How many intensive care beds are there in my region? In: Zeit Online . April 1, 2020, accessed April 9, 2020 .

[spiegel-2020-12-45-4] Jörg Blech: Are the emergency beds enough? In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 2020, p. 45 ( online - March 14, 2020 ).

[5] On April 1, 2020, there were reports from 912 hospitals. According to this, 10,340 occupied intensive care beds were available, of which 1,853 (18%) were occupied with severely Covid-19 patients.