The impact of offering a relatives' clinic on the satisfaction of the next-of-kin of critical care patients-a prospective time-interrupted trial.
BACKGROUND
Families have been shown to be dissatisfied with the frequency of doctor communication in the Critical Care setting. Discussions with families are often conducted in an ad-hoc fashion. We hypothesised that the offer of a formal daily weekday clinic for the relatives of Critical Care patients would increase the relatives' satisfaction.


METHODS
All patients admitted to a 12-bedded Critical Care Unit over a 6-month period in a 480-bed hospital in the East of England were included in the study. The design was a time-interrupted prospective trial assessing the impact of an offered relatives' clinic on the satisfaction of the next-of-kin. Satisfaction was assessed 4 weeks following discharge from the Critical Care Unit by mail survey using the validated Critical Care Family Satisfaction Survey (1-5 scoring scale).


RESULTS
Three hundred twenty-one patients met inclusion criteria. Survey return rate was 46%. The control and intervention groups were similar in size and demographics. Mean satisfaction of the control group was 4.50, and that of the intervention group was 4.55 (p=0.35).


CONCLUSIONS
Offering a relatives' clinic does not significantly improve the satisfaction of the next-of-kin in this setting. Other means of improving satisfaction have been highlighted as a result of the study.
Steel
Alistair
A
Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7UY, United Kingdom. a-steel@doctors.net.uk
Underwood
Carol
C
Notley
Caitlin
C
Blunt
Mark
M
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003142:Communication; D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D004739:England; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires