OBJECTIVES: The objective of the CRRéa study is to assess the real daily cost of a patient’s stay in ICU in France. We present here preliminary results regarding the average time spent per patient by different health caregivers METHODS: A prospective multicentric health economic study was performed in 23 ICUs of different French hospitals randomly selected from the PMSI database (French National Hospital database). In a one day study, 5 adult patients were randomly selected among patients with a simplified severity score ≥ 15 in each ICU. Data on all the resources used, treatments administered, biological tests performed, etc. and time spent by different health caregiver to take care of each patient over a 24 hour period (direct and indirect interventions) were collected through a time and motion analysis method involving the professionals themselves  RESULTS: A total of 109 patients (median age = 66 years, 65% males) of 22 intensive care units (15 polyvalent, 3 surgical and 4 medical ICUs) were included. 104 of them were followed over 24 hours (there were 2 deaths and 3 early withdrawals). On the day of the study, 84% of patients were mechanically ventilated with a median SOFA score = 6. The median cumulated time dedicated to one patient by physicians, nurses and caregivers was 10h20 over the 24-hour period (1h15 by physician, 6h08 by nurses and 2h57 by caregivers) CONCLUSIONS: The median time of more than 10 hours directly dedicated to a patient is a key information for the estimation of the real cost of one day stay in ICU