title: Cost containment: Europe. Switzerland.
abstract: Thanks to Switzerland's very favorable economic situation over the last 20 yrs, intensive care medicine in the country has reached a very satisfactory level. The country is covered by a dense network of ICUs certified by the Swiss Society of Intensive Care Medicine (SSICM). Bed allocation is generous, technological equipment plentiful, and nurses are well trained in a specialized certification program. Rules imposed on physician training by the SSICM have recently become more stringent. A large supply of money in Switzerland has made cost containment efforts a low priority; no well defined program to reduce intensive care costs is in effect. Due to an increasingly difficult economic situation in the future, Switerland's near optimal healthcare system may change; cost containment will probably have to be dealt with seriously in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Soins Intensifs, Hôpital Communal, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Torrenté
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chioléro
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Suter
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D002568:Certification; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods*; D003422:Critical Care / Q000191:economics*; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005544:Forecasting; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006801:Humans; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000191:economics; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013557:Switzerland