UNIT CATEGORIES

DEFINITIONS

1

Critical Care / Intensive Care Service / Burn

Unit in which there are specially trained nursing and supportive personnel and diagnostic, monitoring and therapeutic equipment necessary to provide specialized medical and nursing care to critically ill adult or pediatric patients. (Title XXII)

2

Step-down / Intermediate Care

Unit for the monitoring and care of patients with moderate or potentially severe physiologic instability, requiring technical support but not necessarily artificial life support; a unit reserved for those patients requiring less care than standard intensive care, but more than that which is available from medical-surgical care. (American College of Critical Care Medicine)

3

Telemetry

This category does not, in and of itself, define a level of care. Patients requiring telemetry monitoring may have patient care requirements best met in either a medical-surgical or intermediate care unit.

4

Burn

A burn unit/service may not represent a single level of care but rather a continuum of intensive care, intermediate and medical-surgical levels of care.

5

Medical

Unit for patients with varied medical or surgical conditions whose care can be managed in a non-critical care setting.

6

Pediatrics

Unit for the care of children/families with varied medical and surgical conditions whose care can be managed in a non-critical care setting.

7

Labor & Delivery

Setting to manage patient care requirements for the immediate antepartum, intrapartum, and initial post-partum recovery period for the mother and newborn.

8

Post Anesthesia Care Unit

Specified area staffed and equipped to provide specialized care and supervision of patients during the immediate post-anesthesia period.

9

Operating Room

Specified area staffed and equipped to meet the care requirements of patients undergoing surgical procedures.

10

Emergency Department

Specified area staffed and equipped to meet the care requirements of patients presenting with urgent and emergent medical problems.

11

Sub-Acute

A unit within a hospital or skilled nursing facility that has contracted with Medi-Cal to provide sub-acute services to ventilator and tracheotomy patients. (Sub-acute units are typically licensed at the skilled nursing facility level of care.)

12

Transitional In-Patient Care

A program that reimburses hospitals for Medi-Cal patients who are determined by Medi-Cal to be at a lesser than acute (but not skilled nursing) level of care. Transitional in-patient care may be provided anywhere within a hospital and is not dependent on a geographic unit.

UNIT CATEGORIES

DEFINITIONS

1

Antepartum/Post-partum

Unit to manage the care requirements of non-laboring antepartum patients and post-delivery/post-procedure patients. This may include mother-baby/couplet care.

2

Neonatal Intensive Care

Unit which provides care to neonates and infants who require 12 hours or more of nursing care by an RN per 24-hour period, including continuous cardiopulmonary monitoring and other specialized technology for their multisystem problems. (California Children’s Services)

3

Intermediate Nursery

Nursery that has the capability of providing neonatal care services for sick neonates and infants who do not require intensive care but require care at a higher lever that provided in a general nursery; providing 8-12 hours of care/day. (California Children’s Services)

4

Newborn Nursery

Nursery for newborn infants to manage normal, well-baby/family care requirements.

5

Behavioral Health/Psych

Unit to manage the care requirements of patients with cognitive or behavioral impairments