Colombian consensus on quality in intensive care: task force of the Colombian Association of Critical Medicine and Intensive Care (AMCI®)

For Colombia, it is important to adopt a standardized and structured quality management system for the continuous improvement of health care in intensive care units (ICU). The Colombian Association of Critical Medicine and Intensive Care (AMCI) developed this consensus document to offer recommendations on the different pillars of health quality that are necessary for practice within the units. It was built with a comprehensive approach, taking into account the accumulated experience of the actors who practice the discipline of critical medicine together with the analysis of the best available scientific evidence, but contextualized to the national perspective. This consensus seeks to guarantee and prioritize safety and quality conditions for critically ill patients in the units. In response to the variability in processes, systems, structure, and complexity in ICU throughout the national territory, the AMCI convened a multidisciplinary team of experts in critical medicine, clinicians, and methodologists to make a scientific statement using the consensus methodology. formally, mainly through the DELPHI method, about the quality standards necessary to guarantee efficiency and quality in intensive care services and that can be reflected in patient outcomes. It is intended to have a positive impact on the different levels of the health system, providers, administrators and insurers. It is also intended to establish work channels with the national government and its regulatory bodies, to provide arguments from the scientific society that can facilitate the formulation of policies in control and audit regulations. The consensus invites all intensive care units in the country to carry out a self-assessment of their specific conditions, taking into account the contents of this consensus, clarifying that it was developed in a scientific, academic and non-commercial context, focused on the continuous search for benefit for patients, but also for the human talent that works in the units. Each health institution must be a guarantor, through the leadership of the care coordination of the ICU, of having the best conditions to be able to develop the practice of critical medicine. This consensus document constitutes a source for improvement processes. This document has a national scope and its content is expected to be updated in no more than 4 years.