Recently, veterinarians at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center worked with a pet family and their insurance company following a hospital stay. Before covering charges related to a hospitalization, the insurance company wanted to know if, at the time the pet was hospitalized, it was considered to be in critical condition. As an oncology specialist, I wasn’t sure the exact definition of “critical condition” by pet insurance standards so, in this blogpost, I will share what critical condition means and explain other relevant categories of patient conditions.

Examples of “Critical Condition” in Veterinary Medicine

Critical condition is defined as a medical state where the patient does not have normal vital signs and the vital signs may be changing rapidly. Vital signs include heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature and blood pressure. Patients in critical condition may be unconscious and are at risk of dying. Cats with congestive heart failure and an elevated respiratory rate or a dog with very low blood pressure because of bloat are examples of pets in critical condition.

The Opposite of Critical Condition

The opposite critical condition, on the patient condition spectrum, is good or fair condition. In both of these medical states, the vital signs are normal, and the patient is conscious. Patients in fair condition are uncomfortable and those in good condition feel… good! In both categories, the patient is expected to recover. An example of a cat in fair condition is one with a nasty cold or upper respiratory infection.

Between Critical and Good Condition

Serious condition describes a patient with vital signs that may be rapidly changing and are not normal. These patients may or may not recover. A pet with a very high fever might be considered seriously ill. Since fever accompanies many diseases, some good and other not so good, pets with a fever can fit the patient condition known as serious.

Do Veterinary Hospitals Have a Critical List?

In human hospitals, a critical list is used to describe patient condition, especially to the press. Healthcare privacy laws prevent specific information about patient health from being released publicly. Thus, the American Hospital Association advises its members to use the one-word classification of patient condition—good, fair, serious, and critical—when releasing information to the public.

While healthcare privacy laws do not apply to veterinary hospitals, AMC follows the same ethical principles and would not release information to the public without the owner’s permission. We therefore rely on the same one-word classification system to describe our patients. In a recent story out of Salt Lake City, a dog caught in a fire was reported to be in critical condition. Now you know what that means.

I hope your dog or cat is never on AMC’s critical list, but if they are, we will be doing what we have done for the past 114 years—everything possible to correct the illness and return them to you healthy and well.