Project Director's Perspective: The Critical Care Family Assistance Program

(CHEST 2005; 128:106S–110S) T he Critical Care Family Assistance Program (CCFAP) is designed to respond to the unmet needs of families of critically ill patients in hospital ICUs through the provision of educational and family support services. In May 2002, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations convened an advisory panel to explore the establishment of an “ICU core measures set framework.” The panel, composed of experts in critical care representing academic medical centers, medical specialty societies, the federal government, and business consulting groups, seeks to develop a framework for ICU core measures and the identification of potential key measurements within that framework. One of the goals of the CCFAP model is to be capable of meeting those measures, and from a research perspective, to provide data that will contribute to the field of critical care medicine.