Meaning & use
CCU
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Meanings
abbreviationcountablemedical
A hospital ward, short for coronary care unit, where patients with serious heart problems are watched closely day and night.
Grammar: Used like a place name with in or to: he is in the CCU; the plural is CCUs.
Patterns
- in the CCU
- be moved to the CCU
After the heart attack he spent two nights in the CCU.
The CCU nurses check each monitor every few minutes.
She was moved from the emergency room to the CCU within the hour.
abbreviationcountablemedical
A hospital unit, short for critical care unit, that treats patients in life-threatening condition; many hospitals use this name instead of intensive care unit.
Grammar: Used the same way as ICU and often interchangeable with it in a hospital that uses the name CCU.
Patterns
- admitted to the CCU
- staff in the CCU
The accident victim was admitted to the CCU after surgery.
Visiting hours in the CCU are shorter than on other wards.
The hospital opened a new CCU with twelve beds.
Word forms
| plural | CCUs |
|---|
Common combinations
- in the CCU
- My uncle is still in the CCU but is breathing without help.
- admitted to the CCU
- She was admitted to the CCU with chest pain.
- CCU nurse
- The CCU nurse explained each alarm to the family.
- transferred to the CCU
- He was transferred to the CCU after his condition changed.
- CCU bed
- There was no free CCU bed until the next morning.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ICU
- ICU stands for intensive care unit and is the most common name for a ward treating critically ill patients, while CCU is often heart-specific or local naming.
- intensive care
- Intensive care is the full everyday phrase and sounds less technical than the abbreviation CCU.
- cardiac unit
- Cardiac unit names the heart focus clearly, whereas CCU can also mean general critical care in some hospitals.
Word family
Commonly confused: CCU or ICU?
CCU vs ICU
ICU means intensive care unit; some hospitals use CCU for heart patients only, while others use CCU and ICU for the same kind of unit.
Practice
In many hospitals, where would a patient who just had a serious heart attack most likely be sent?
Choose one answer.
The CCU is the unit for patients needing constant monitoring, including after a serious heart attack. The other places have no role in close medical treatment.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “CCU”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.