Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Patient opinion as a cornerstone

Abstract Objective To study the agreement between the level of satisfaction of patients and their families referred to the care and attention received during admission to the ICU. Design A prospective, 5-month observational and descriptive study was carried out. Setting ICU of Marques de Valdecilla University Hospital, Santander (Spain). Subjects Adult patients with an ICU stay longer than 24 h, who were discharged to the ward during the period of the study, and their relatives. Intervention Instrument: FS-ICU 34 for assessing family satisfaction, and an adaptation of the FS-ICU 34 for patients. The Cohen kappa index was calculated to assess agreement between answers. Results An analysis was made of the questionnaires from one same family unit, obtaining 148 pairs of surveys (296 questionnaires). The kappa index ranged between 0.278 and 0.558, which is indicative of mild to moderate agreement. Conclusions The families of patients admitted to the ICU cannot be regarded as good proxies, at least for competent patients. In such cases, we must refer to these patients in order to obtain first hand information on their feelings, perceptions and experiences during admission to the ICU. Only when patients are unable to actively participate in the care process should their relatives be consulted.