• Alistair Steel, Carol Underwood, Caitlin Notley, and Mark Blunt.
• Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7UY, United Kingdom. a-steel@doctors.net.uk
• Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2008 Apr 1; 24 (2): 122-9.

BackgroundFamilies have been shown to be dissatisfied with the frequency of doctor communication in the Critical Care setting. Discussions with families are often conducted in an ad-hoc fashion. We hypothesised that the offer of a formal daily weekday clinic for the relatives of Critical Care patients would increase the relatives' satisfaction.MethodsAll patients admitted to a 12-bedded Critical Care Unit over a 6-month period in a 480-bed hospital in the East of England were included in the study. The design was a time-interrupted prospective trial assessing the impact of an offered relatives' clinic on the satisfaction of the next-of-kin. Satisfaction was assessed 4 weeks following discharge from the Critical Care Unit by mail survey using the validated Critical Care Family Satisfaction Survey (1-5 scoring scale).ResultsThree hundred twenty-one patients met inclusion criteria. Survey return rate was 46%. The control and intervention groups were similar in size and demographics. Mean satisfaction of the control group was 4.50, and that of the intervention group was 4.55 (p=0.35).ConclusionOffering a relatives' clinic does not significantly improve the satisfaction of the next-of-kin in this setting. Other means of improving satisfaction have been highlighted as a result of the study.

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