Critically ill patients are often unable to communicate, placing the onus on clinicians in ICUs to engage family members. In the United States, practice has gradually shifted toward including family members in ICU rounds (1). However, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic dramatically altered hospital care in the United States. For example, early reports suggested many hospitals restricted access to visitors (2). We sought to understand changes to visitation policies and strategies used to communicate with family members because of COVID-19. We identified all hospitals with ICUs in the state of Michigan using the 2018 American Hospital Association annual survey database and by Internet searches. In early April, Michigan's statewide ICU occupancy was 71%, the fifth highest in the United States (3). Within each hospital, an ICU physician or nurse leader from a medical ICU was identified and surveyed over the telephone between April 6, 2020, and May 8, 2020. If the ICU leader was unavailable by telephone, an online survey was conducted. Participants were asked 1) whether their hospital made any changes to its visitation policy; 2) what changes were made; 3) whether their ICU had changed the way it routinely communicated with family members; and 4) what strategies their ICU was using to communicate with family members. x 2 and t tests were used to compare responding and nonresponding hospitals. All tests were two sided, with a P value of less than 0.05 considered significant. This research was deemed to be exempt from review by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board (HUM00179422). We surveyed 49 out of 89 Michigan hospitals with ICUs (response rate = 55%). Characteristics between responding and nonresponding hospitals were similar (Table 1). All 49 responding hospitals had changes to their visitation policies because of COVID-19 (Figure 1). One hospital (2%) indicated

BACKGROUND: Two out of three family members experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, or anxiety lasting for months after the ICU stay. Interventions aimed at mitigating these symptoms have been unsuccessful.RESEARCH QUESTION: To understand the emotional experiences of family members of critically ill patients and to identify coping strategies used by family members during the ICU stay.STUDY DESIGN: and Methods: As part of a mixed methods study to understand sources of distress among ICU family members, semistructured interviews were conducted with ICU family members. Family members completed surveys at the time of interview and at 90 days to assess for symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress.RESULTS: Semistructured interviews and baseline surveys were conducted with 40 ICU family members; 78% of participants (n ¼ 31) completed follow-up surveys at 90 days. At the time of interview, 65% of family members had symptoms of depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress. At 90 days, 48% of surveyed family members had symptoms of psychological distress. Three primary emotions were identified among ICU family members: sadness, anger, and fear. A diverse array of coping strategies was used by family members, including problemsolving, information seeking, avoidance/escape, self-reliance, support seeking, and accommodation.INTERPRETATION: This study emphasizes similarities in emotions but diversity in coping strategies used by family members in the ICU. Understanding the relationship between ICU experiences, emotional responses, and long-term psychological outcomes may guide targeted interventions to improve mental health outcomes of ICU family members.

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Background Inter-hospital patient transfers to hospitals with greater resource availability and expertise may improve clinical outcomes. However, there is little guidance regarding how patient transfer requests should be prioritized when hospital resources become scarce. Objective To understand the experiences of healthcare workers involved in the process of accepting inter-hospital patient transfers during a pandemic surge and determine factors impacting inter-hospital patient transfer decision-making. Design We conducted a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews between October 2021 and February 2022. Participants Eligible participants were physicians, nurses, and non-clinician administrators involved in the process of accepting inter-hospital patient transfers. Participants were recruited using maximum variation sampling. Approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare workers across Michigan. Key Results Twenty-one participants from 15 hospitals were interviewed (45.5% of eligible hospitals). About half (52.4%) of participants were physicians, 38.1% were nurses, and 9.5% were non-clinician administrators. Three domains of themes impacting patient transfer decision-making emerged: decision-maker, patient, and environmental factors. Decision-makers described a lack of guidance for transfer decision-making. Patient factors included severity of illness, predicted chance of survival, need for specialized care, and patient preferences for medical care. Decision-making occurred within the context of environmental factors including scarce resources at accepting and requesting hospitals, organizational changes to transfer processes, and alternatives to patient transfer including use of virtual care. Participants described substantial moral distress related to transfer triaging. Conclusions A lack of guidance in transfer processes may result in considerable variation in the patients who are accepted for inter-hospital transfer and in substantial moral distress among decision-makers involved in the transfer process. Our findings identify potential organizational changes to improve the inter-hospital transfer process and alleviate the moral distress experienced by decision-makers. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11606-023-08237-w.