Open Regime of Intensive Care Units Patient Visits: Experts Opinion

Abstract

Resume. The issue of open visits to intensive care units is currently a topical, acute and ambiguous issue. In Ukraine, it is actively discussed in the media, social networks, the medical community. Appropriate working groups of the Ministry of Health are being set up to optimize the regulatory framework on this issue.The article reviews the literature on the problems of open visits of adult patients undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit. Opinions on this issue are quite contradictory. On the one hand, there is a position that the stay of relatives in the ICU 24/7 improves the results of treatment, creating a more comfortable psychological atmosphere for the patient. On the other hand, and this approach prevails, a number of studies indicate an increase in the number of bacterial complications in patients with unlimited visits, complication of working conditions of medical staff, which leads to a deterioration in treatment outcomes in general.Public organization «Association of Anesthesiologists of Ukraine» conducted an online survey among anesthesiologists - members of the association for find out the opinion of Ukrainian experts about open visits to ICU’s patients. Most of the anesthesiologists surveyed are inclined to a limited visitation regime.