[Economic limits in intensive care. Can we still afford intensive care in the year 2000?].

Intensive care medicine currently accounts for about 20% of the overall budget of a hospital. A certain reduction of these expenses may be reached through a rationalisation of medical care procedures and structures. The evaluation of procedure efficacy and outcomes, however, is mandatory for the quality assurance of treatment results. A possible rationing of intensive care therapy is difficult to imagine since the current practice of intensive care medicine is also based on humanitarian grounds. The associated costs have to be born by society as a whole. Intensive care medicine though, has to continuously reevaluate and discuss its goals with society.