Introduction:

There are both general and specific quality indicators in critical care medicine. Indicators for respiratory intensive care units (RICUs) processes are needed.

Material and methods:

Following the methodology of the working groups of the Spanish Society of Intensive, Critical Care and Coronary Units and the Avedis-Donabedian Foundation, a working group of the RICUs belonging to departments of chest medicine of the main hospitals of third and fourth level of care in Mexico identified relevant aspects of the care process in relation to volume, risk and complexity, collecting information from ten years of clinical activity to be correlated and finally to design indicators.

Results:

Delimitation of the field of action was made accounting with information on 2,776 patients treated from November 1, 2009 to November 1, 2019. Important aspects such as bronchoscopy, pneumonia, immunocompromised patient, massive hemoptysis, bronchial artery embolization, segmental/lobar or pulmonary resection surgery, thoracentesis and ultrasound were identified and correlated in consensus by the group of experts leading to the design of four indicators.

Conclusions:

This is the first report on the development of quality indicators for RICUs belonging to departments of chest medicine that will serve to improve quality in this type of units.

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