Mapping intensive care across Ibero-America: The FEPIMCTI multinational survey of bed capacity, workforce, and pandemic response
Authors' conclusion
Critical care capacity, workforce, and organization vary widely across Ibero-America, with many countries below high-income benchmarks and pandemic surges met largely through temporary redeployment.
Study context
- Population
- National critical care societies affiliated with FEPIMCTI across Ibero-America, reporting country-level ICU data
- Participants
- 21 countries
- Outcome
- ICU capacity and workforce
Methodological detailsmultinational, national critical care society survey, Presidents or designated representatives reported country-level data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Multinational
- National critical care society survey
- Presidents or designated representatives reported country-level data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- ICU beds reported
- 78,723
- ICU beds per 100,000, country-level median (IQR 3.3-12.4)
- 6.1
- ICU beds per 100,000, population-weighted rate
- 11.3
- Public ICUs share of ICU beds
- 51.6%
- Intensivists identified
- 23,803
- Intensivists per 100,000, median (IQR 1.0-5.0)
- 2.6
- Countries below 1 intensivist per 100,000
- 5
- Nurse-to-patient ratios range
- 1:1 to 1:7
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Pandemic surge capacity · During COVID-19 pandemic
- Rise in ICU bed capacity
- 69%
- Rise in physician involvement (20 countries with data for both periods), largely through redeployment of non-intensivists
- 32%
Original publication
Mapping intensive care across Ibero-America: The FEPIMCTI multinational survey of bed capacity, workforce, and pandemic response. J Crit Care. Published 22 July 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →