The Medical Economics and Research Centre, Sheffield (MERCS) have developed the economic questionnaire, in partnership with the International Programme for resOurce use in Critical care (IPOC).

The economic questionnaire is derived from the questionnaire used by the Critical Care National Working Group on Costing to collect Cost Block data in the UK. The Cost Block method has been successfully implemented in the UK since 1999. We would like to acknowledge the UK Critical Care National Working Group on Costing for their contribution to this initiative.

Each participating ICU should complete this questionnaire at the start of the study. The aim of the questionnaire is to collect information pertaining to the characteristics of each ICU involved in the study, and also to collect data relating to the resource use in each of the participating ICUs.

The IPOC forms are designed to be completed by different people. Thus, the medical staff section might be best filled in by the most senior doctor, and the nursing staff section by the most senior nurse. It is up to individual ICUs as to who is the most appropriate person to complete the other sections. However, it would be helpful if one person took overall responsibility for its completion.

Please note that strict anonymity of all data will be ensured during all stages of the project (data collection, data analysis and reporting). The information on ICU identification is asked only to avoid recording duplicate information.

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