Intensive Care Medicine Program

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and a large, highly experienced medical team. Our facility cares for patients with severe illnesses that require close monitoring and advanced life-sustaining interventions.

The ICU team includes several consultant intensivists, respiratory therapists, critical care nurses, and consultants from other medical specialties. The ICU at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is the largest single-unit ICU in the UAE, measured by the number of individual closed rooms within the one location. As of September 2017, the ICU has a capacity of 72 beds.

What We Treat

The Intensive Care Unit is an inpatient treatment unit caring for patients with a broad range of life-threatening illnesses - including severe infections, kidney or liver failure, and respiratory failure. The unit also treats and monitors patients after complex surgeries, such as heart, lung, and brain operations.

The Intensive Care Unit provides specialized treatment with a multidisciplinary team of caregivers who monitor and stabilize critically ill patients 24 hours a day.

If a patient is experiencing an emergency, he or she should report directly to the Emergency Department.

Diagnosis & Treatment with Intensive Care Medicine

Patients are typically referred to the ICU from another hospital department as a part of their inpatient treatment. They may also be referred from the Emergency Department. The caregivers at the ICU coordinate with the referring department in order to identify the medical issues that need to be addressed.

Treatment in the Intensive Care Unit

The treatment of life-threatening critical illnesses requires an expert in intensive care medicine. Depending on the patient’s condition, the intensive care consultant may order imaging studies like x-rays, CT scans, or echocardiograms. Frequent blood test monitoring is also an integral part of illness management in the ICU.

Patients in the ICU will usually be kept sedated to help manage pain. Antibiotics may be administered to help control infection, and blood thinners may also be used to prevent clots. External breathing machines are used to provide support for patients having difficulty breathing on their own.