The Critical Care Medicine Department (CCMD) was established in 1979 to provide comprehensive care for all patients requiring intensive care support and critical care consultation. The department provides medical, cardiac, and surgical intensive care unit services for adult and pediatric patients enrolled in the intramural National Institutes of Health (NIH) research protocols.  It also provides central vascular access, bronchoscopic access, and both pediatric and adult conscious sedation support for patients.  In addition to patient services, the physician, nursing, and critical care therapist groups comprising the department are actively involved in both basic and clinical research and in education in the field of critical care.

It operates an intensive care unit that provides hemodynamic monitoring; ventilatory, renal replacement; and cardiovascular support. All medical patients in these units are cared for by CCMD senior physicians and medical fellows. Some surgical patients with predominantly medical problems are under the primary care of the CCMD physician staff as well.