Background: Family satisfaction with intensive care is a measure of patient experience and patient-centered care. Among the factors that might influence family satisfaction are the timing of patient admittance to the intensive care unit (ICU), the ICU environment, and individual health care providers.
Objective: To evaluate family satisfaction with the ICU and to explore associations between satisfaction and specific characteristics of the ICU stay.
Methods: Participants were adult family members of ICU patients. One family member per patient was enrolled. Regression was used to test the association between time or day of admittance and scores on the Family Satisfaction With Care in the Intensive Care Unit survey. Additionally, we explored exposure to admitting physicians and registered nurses. Free-text survey comments were grouped by using qualitative content analysis.
Results: Surveys were completed by 401 family members. There was no association between survey scores and providers, nor between scores and the time or day of the ICU admission. Three major themes emerged as important to patient and family satisfaction: (1) communication and information, (2) personalization or the patient as expert, and (3) staff and environment.
Conclusions: Family satisfaction with an ICU admission was not influenced by the timing of the admission. Overall satisfaction with the ICU was high. The qualitative analysis points to the importance of collecting qualitative data in addition to using standard survey tools to capture the richness of patient experience. Ongoing efforts to engage with families remain critical to the practice of family- and patient-centered care in the ICU.
©2025 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.