title: [Care grading in Intensive Medicine: Intermediate Care Units].
abstract: Intermediate Care Units are created for patients who predictably have low risk of requiring therapeutic life support measures but who require more monitoring and nursing cares than those received in the conventional hospitalization wards. Previous studies have demonstrated that Intermediate Care Units may promote hospital care grading, allowing for better classification in critical patients, improving efficacy and efficiency of the ICUs and thus decreasing costs and above all mortality in the conventional hospitalization wards. This document attempts to group the currently existing knowledge that served as a base for the consensus meeting on the application of them in the establishment of future ICUs in our hospital setting.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Cuidados Críticos y Urgencias, Hospitales Universitarios Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, España. fernando.castillo.sspa@juntadeandalucia.es
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Castillo
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marco
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Puppo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Murillo
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care / Q000145:classification* / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D007362:Intensive Care Units