A user interface enables a critical care clinician (such as a respiratory therapist, nurse, resident, or attending physician) to quickly ascertain a patient condition as part of a patient care management procedure. A system according to invention principles comprises a user interface display providing a quick and convenient way to display key vital parameters and their acceptable ranges within the immediate eye-span of a clinician. A system provides a user interface presenting patient medical parameter data, and includes an acquisition processor for acquiring, from a patient monitoring device, data representing a patient parameter. The system includes a processor for initiating generation of data representing at least one display image including, (a) a current value of a patient parameter and (b) a sliding bar representation of the patient parameter current value together with a range indicator for graphically indicating whether the current value is outside of a user determined range.