[The quality and safety of intensive care medicine in Spain. More than just words].

Int ensive care medicine aims t o of f er cr i t ical pat ient s qual it y medical care adj ust ed t o t heir needs, and in t he safest way possible. This specialized f ield of medical care const i t ut es one of t he main el ement s of al l modern heal t hcare syst ems, represent ing a resource t hat i s increasingly in demand, and which impl ies import ant sanitary costs. In the United States, it has been est imated that over one-half of the populat ion will be admit ted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at some point in l ife, and that an import ant percent age wi l l die in such Unit s, consuming bet ween 0.5-1% of t he Gross Domest ic Product of t he count ry. 1 In recent years, hospi t als wi t h a t endency t o signi f icant ly reduce t he number of avai lable beds have increased their act ivit ies in Intensive Care. Such act ivity has become consolidated not only in the classical Units but has moreover also spread to other areas with clearly prevent ive aims – such as medical emergency t eams or post -crit ical pat ient cont rol.2 The qual i t y of care has gradual l y become a cent ral element in heal t hcare. In t his cont ext , in recent years, pat ient safet y has gained import ance as one of t he key dimensions of quality. This importance is even more manifest in the case of intensive care medicine, not only due to the