Department of resuscitation and intensive care medicine of the Department of anaesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care medicine of the Medical School of Masaryk University and University Hospital Brno. Design: Retrospective descriptive study. Setting: The Department of anaesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care medicine of the Medical school of Masaryk University and University Hospital Brno. Material and methods: The article describes our one-year experience, from 1st October 2005 to 30th September 2006, at this centralized institution of resuscitation and intensive care in a large teaching hospital. The evaluated parameters were the capacity of the department, the number of patients and parameters of their hospitalization, the staffing and equipment of the department and the work organization of the department. Results: The department has 23 beds and it is the largest department of its kind in Moravia. The department became a teaching department in April 2006. The Department of anaesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care medicine greatly participates in the undergraduate and postgraduate education of medical and non-medical professionals. During the first year 897 patients were hospitalized in the Department with the average length of stay 6.4 days, mortality of 13.5% and the average APACHE II score of 20.55. Conclusion: The new department has successfully become established as a substantive part of the high standard of resuscitation and intensive care in Moravia.

        Key words: centralisation of intensive care – barrier type of nursing – box system – ISO certification