[Cost of quality in Intensive Medicine. Guidelines for clinical management].
OBJECTIVE
This article reviews the utility and applicability of available systems in order to calculate general and quality costs in clinical services settings.


METHODS
Review of techniques to calculate costs in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) according to analytical accounting approaches.


RESULTS
The methodological development is complemented with the results of its application in the ICU of the Miracle's Hospital showing the structure of costs and the results obtained with this methodology when analyzing the costs of activities related to quality improvement.


CONCLUSIONS
The effort to implement systems focused to analyze general and quality costs will result in a benefit of those participating in the healthcare system: citizens, professionals, managers, and "financials" since that which is only a legitimate demand today will be a inexcuseable commitment of the healthcare professionals from the society tomorrow.
Carrasco
G
G
Servicio de Medicina Intensiva, Sociedad Cooperativa de Instalaciones de Asistencia Sanitaria, Hospital de Barcelona, Barcelona, España. uci@sciashdb.com
Pallarés
A
A
Cabré
L
L
D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000191:economics*; D013030:Spain