Guías de práctica clínica "herramientas" para mejorar la calidad de la atención médica

introduction: in order to improve the medical care quality and at the same time quarantee patients' safety,lately, it has been incorporated a group of methodological tools such as the clinical guidelines. objective: determine the role played by the clinical guidelines in present day medical practice. methods: i was made a review of the available literature about this topic selecting a group of works considered as the most importants. there were also included different opinions of colleagues as well as the author's criteria based on the experience of more than 15 years. results: the reasons of the appearance of clinical guidelines, their requirements to fulfill, the methods of elaboration and their implementation and assessment are exposed in this work. finally, some practical advises are offered making emphasis on a good aplication of the clinical method playing the clinical guidelines a subsidiary role. conclusions: when linical guidelines are conceived and used adequately they can contribute to improve the quality of medical care as a complement of a clinical method of excelence.