ABSTRACT
Introduction: Virtual communication has become common practice during the COVID-19 pandemic due to visitation restriction. We aimed to evaluate overall family satisfaction in intensive care unit (FS-ICU) with virtual communication strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Method(s): In this prospective multi-centre study involving three metropolitan hospitals in Melbourne, Australia, the next of kin (NOK) of all the eligible ICU patients between 07/01/2022 and 10/31/2020 were required to complete an adopted version of FS-ICU 24-Questionnaire. Group comparisons were analysed for family satisfaction scores: ICU/ care (satisfaction with care), FS-ICU/dm (satisfaction with information/ decision-making) and FS-ICU total (overall satisfaction with the ICU) were calculated. The essential predictors that influence family satisfaction were identified using quantitative and qualitative analyses. Result(s): Seventy-three out of the 227 patients' NOK who initially agreed, completed the FS-ICU questionnaire (response rate 32.2%). The mean (SD) FS-ICU/total was 63.9 (30.8). The mean score for satisfaction with FS-ICU/dm was lower than the FS-ICU/care (62.1 [30.30 vs. 65.4 [31.4];p 0.001) (Fig. 1). There was no difference in mean FS-ICU/ total scores between survivors (n = 65;89%) and non-survivors (n = 8, 11%). Higher patient APACHE-III score, female NOK and the patient dying in ICU were independent predictors for FS-ICU/total score while a telephone call at least once a day by an ICU doctor was related to higher family satisfaction for FS-ICU/dm. Conclusion(s): There was low overall family satisfaction with ICU care and virtual communication strategies adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Effort should be targeted for improving factors with virtual communication that cause low family satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.