Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Aug;160(2):549-557.
doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2021.05.003. Epub 2021 May 8.

Family Presence for Critically Ill Patients During a Pandemic

Joanna L Hart  1 , Stephanie Parks Taylor  2
Affiliations
Review

Family Presence for Critically Ill Patients During a Pandemic

Joanna L Hart et al. Chest. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Family engagement is a key component of high-quality critical care, with known benefits for patients, care teams, and family members themselves. The COVID-19 pandemic led to rapid enactment of prohibitions or restrictions on visitation that now persist, particularly for patients with COVID-19. Reevaluation of these policies in response to advances in knowledge and resources since the early pandemic is critical because COVID-19 will continue to be a public health threat for months to years, and future pandemics are likely. This article reviews rationales and evidence for restricting or permitting family members' physical presence and provides broad guidance for health care systems to develop and implement policies that maximize benefit and minimize risk of family visitation during COVID-19 and future similar public health crises.

Keywords: COVID-19; critical care; ethics; family; policy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Davidson J.E., Jones C., Bienvenu O.J. Family response to critical illness: postintensive care syndrome–family. Crit Care Med. 2012;40(2):618–624. - PubMed
    1. Davidson J.E., Aslakson R.A., Long A.C. Guidelines for family-centered care in the neonatal, pediatric, and adult ICU. Crit Care Med. 2017;45(1):103–128. - PubMed
    1. Harvey M.A. The truth about consequences—post-intensive care syndrome in intensive care unit survivors and their families. Crit Care Med. 2012;40(8):2506–2507. - PubMed
    1. Hart J.L., Turnbull A.E., Oppenheim I.M., Courtright K.R. Family-centered care during the COVID-19 era. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020;60(2):e93–e97. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Andrist E., Clarke R.G., Harding M. Paved with good intentions: hospital visitation restrictions in the age of coronavirus disease 2019. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2020;21(10):e924–e926. - PMC - PubMed