Acute care may require a stay in a hospital emergency department, ambulatory surgery center, urgent care centre or other short-term stay facility, along with the assistance of diagnostic services, surgery, or follow-up outpatient care in the community. Acute care nursing has evolved and no longer is limited only to emergency department, intensive care, coronary care, cardiology, neonatal intensive care, and now includes many general areas where the patient could become acutely unwell and require stabilization and transfer to another higher dependency unit for further treatment.
