• Sigal Sviri, Dekel Geva, Peter Vernon vanHeerden, Marc Romain, Hashem Rawhi, Avraham Abutbul, Efrat Orenbuch-Harroch, and Netta Bentur.
• Medical Intensive Care Unit, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: sigals@hadassah.org.il.
• J Crit Care. 2019 Jun 1; 51: 6-12.

BackgroundIntensive care unit (ICU) physicians should provide relatives of critically ill patients with appropriate and clear information, regarding prognosis, treatment options and expectations.ObjectivesTo assess whether a structured communication tool improves satisfaction with care and engenders realistic expectations among relatives of critically ill patients.Study DesignA controlled, pre-post intervention design was implemented in the General and Medical ICUs in the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.MethodsForty relatives of patients who received usual communication from the medical staff (control group) were interviewed. We then implemented a structured communication tool and another forty family members were interviewed (intervention group). The ICU physicians who participated in the family meeting were also interviewed.ResultsSatisfaction in the intervention group was higher regarding ease of obtaining the information (90% vs 70%, p = .025) and the consistency of information provided (92.5% vs 77.5%, p = .057). There was better correlation between physicians' and relatives' expectations in the intervention group regarding hospital survival (Kappa 0.322 vs 0.054, p = .01). Physicians predicted more accurately patients' actual hospital survival.ConclusionsA structured communication tool was associated with improved family satisfaction with communication and expectations regarding hospital survival. Further research is required to evaluate this promising intervention.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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