In The Netherlands, 8.3% of the gross national product is allocated to health care. Medical care provided in ICUs consumes approximately 8% of hospital budgets, or approximately 2.5% of the total healthcare budget. The high cost of intensive care medicine in The Netherlands has become a matter of concern during the last decade. A national intensive care study was conducted from 1989 through 1990 to evaluate the effectiveness and organization of ICUs in the country. This study has shown that there is an association between the operational characteristics of ICUs and the hospital in which these units operate. In approximately 50% of ICUs studied, a marked mismatch existed between the provision and the use of resources. Surgical activities in the hospital were the major observed cause for this mismatch, mainly because ICUs were often used instead of the recovery room, which operated only about 8 to 10 hrs/day during working days. In addition to an absence of clearly written policies for the use of the facilities, a lack of sound ICU business organization and management was also documented and may have contributed to the observed misuse of resources and the dissatisfaction and burnout of hospital personnel. In order to improve the use of resources and to establish a controllable program of cost containment in ICUs in The Netherlands, the recommendations made to Dutch authorities were aggregated under two headings: a) the adoption of a quantifiable method for defining levels of ICU care; and b) the enforcement of the professional organization and management of ICUs.