Glossary

Centro de Responsabilidade Integrada

Published 3 November 2026, 17:05
Centro de Responsabilidade Integrada (CRI)

A way of giving a department of a public hospital more independence: it has its own work plan, its own targets and the right to pay medical staff extra for the work they do. Such centres are set up where the standard pay is not enough to attract people to the job.

Where you come across it. News about hospitals: “we are looking into setting up a CRI”, “the department has switched to the CRI model”.
For patients, booking and appointments do not change; what changes is how the hospital pays its doctors. Setting up such a centre has to be agreed with the ministry, and it is not a quick process.