Responsabilidad médica en la atención de pacientes en unidades de cuidados intensivos / Medical liability in the treatment of intensive care unit patients

ABSTRACT

Critical care medicine was practiced informally during several years, specially during was periods. Nowadays it is, however, a fundamental part of health systems in which patients attain care facilities of increasing complexity in a cost effective manner, according to their needs. The importance of this discipline in Chile, durign its 30 years of developments, has progressively increased and at the present time, intensive care units represent up to 30 percent of the total number of beds in some hospitals. Even though these units requiere great budgets and many resources, teheir place and the role of physicians who work in them has not been recognized adquately by the national medical community. The present document presents the official position of the Chilean Society of Intensive Medicine on the general objectives of this discipline. It indicates the scope of action of the specialty and the role of intensive care physicians, their relationship with other specialties, their duties and responsibilities with their patients