Assistance Program for Families of Critically Ill Patients Expands Across The U.S.
ICUs. Families with loved one in hospital intensive care units.
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Assistance Program for Families of Critically Ill Patients Expands Across The U.S.
The CHEST Foundation Expands ICU Program and Creates Replication Toolkit
NORTHBROOK, Ill., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- A multidisciplinary program that provides support for families with loved ones in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) and education to the health-care teams is now expanding across the country. The Critical Care Family Assistance Program (CCFAP), created by The CHEST Foundation and the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, was developed in 2001 to respond to the unmet needs of families of critically ill patients in hospital ICUs. After implementing the program in two pilot sites last year, The CHEST Foundation and the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation are in the process of expanding the CCFAP to nine sites across the U.S. and have developed a replication toolkit to allow hospitals to implement the program in their ICUs.
Over seven million Americans are caregivers to family members, mostly to parents, who are suffering long-term illnesses in intensive care units. The strain of traveling four hours on average, sleeping on waiting room couches, and eating from vending machines takes its toll on family members, making life and death decisions more difficult. The CHEST Foundation and Eli Lilly and Company Foundation recognized this problem and created the Critical Care Family Assistance Program to provide families with stronger support and resources during a loved one's ICU stay.
Pilot programs implemented last year at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK, and Evanston Hospital in Evanston, IL, proved to be an important component of the ICU, impacting the delivery of critical care and outcomes for patients and families. The programs also found an increased level of staff satisfaction, therefore increasing staff retention and the ability to attract high quality staff.
Due to the success of the pilot programs, The CHEST Foundation and Eli Lilly and Company Foundation have expanded the program to Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, TX, and Highland Park Hospital, in Highland Park, IL, and anticipate five additional sites by 2005. Program elements vary for each site but may include a computerized kiosk that provides information about specific diseases, hospital services, and the critical care environment; staff, pastoral, and social services; parking and wayfaring maps; and recommendations for local hotel accommodations and dining. Communications devices, motel and meal vouchers, taxi coupons, bus tickets, and phone cards for family members, and family sleeping and consultation rooms, are other core program components.
As part of the expansion, The CHEST Foundation is offering a replication toolkit to provide hospitals with critical information and tools for implementing the CCFAP in their own ICUs. The replication toolkit takes ICUs through all the steps of the program, including design and planning, implementation, evaluation, and sharing data, as well as providing an extensive checklist for program coordinators. The design section lays out the plan and explains how to get organized; the implementation section demonstrates success factors. The evaluating and improving sections outline critical components of the replication process and the sharing section provides tools to facilitate communicating the success to other institutions. The new toolkit will be available by spring 2004 both in hardcopy and on CD- ROM.
"We are very pleased with the success of the pilot programs in Oklahoma and Illinois," said Diane Stover, MD, FCCP, President of The CHEST Foundation. "We hope this toolkit will guide other critical care units that would like to respond to the needs of family members of critically ill patients."
For caregivers to qualify for the program, they must have an immediate family member in the ICU, with the patient expecting a long-term stay, and be traveling a long distance to get to the hospital. Both family members and health-care professionals are given a chance to provide feedback about their ICU experience in a survey that they can fill out either on the computer kiosk or on paper. The collected data will be used in a study to help guide future ICU services for families.
"Lilly Critical Care wanted to go beyond just providing treatment for critically ill patients, and extend that commitment to the families who must face their loved one's illness everyday," said Vince Mihalik, Acute Care Business Unit Leader for Eli Lilly and Company. "It is our hope that critical care units across the country will incorporate similar programs."
The CHEST Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). The Foundation's mission is to improve lung health for patients and communities through education focused on public health issues. Many of ACCP's 15,700 members are critical care specialists who provide clinical, respiratory, and cardiothoracic patient care in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, established in 1968, is a nonprofit corporation made possible by the profits of Eli Lilly and Company. It is the major source of the company's support for nonprofit organizations. The Foundation's contributions place Lilly among the top 10 most generous companies in the world.
SOURCE American College of Chest Physicians
Posted by Craig at October 10, 2003 07:00 PM