Development of a Communications Program to Support Care of Critically Ill Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients

• Main Authors: Pamela K Wendel MD, Roberta J Stack MSc, Mary F Chisholm MD, Mary J Kelly FNP-BC, Bella Elogoodin MBA, Gregory A Liguori MD, Douglas S T Green MD, Mandip Singh Kalsi MD, Ellen M Soffin MD, PhD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2020-10-01
• Series: Journal of Patient Experience
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373520956865

A significant role of intensive care unit (ICU) workforce is ongoing communication with and support for families of critically ill patients. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unanticipated challenges to this essential function. Restrictions on visitors to hospitals and unprecedented clinical demands hamper traditional communication between ICU staff and patient families. In response to this challenge, we created a dedicated communications service to provide comprehensive support to families of COVID-19 patients, and to create capacity for our ICU teams to focus on patient care. In this brief report, we describe the development, implementation, and preliminary experience with the service.