249: ICU Visitor Restriction Policies and Approaches to Family Engagement During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Communication with family members of ICU patients has changed dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic To investigate these changes, we interviewed site project leaders among ICUs that had participated in the Family Engagement Collaborative (FEC), a shared learning experience begun by SCCM in September 2019 that promoted ICU family engagement projects among participating sites before being cancelled in March 2020 due to COVID-19 METHODS: We developed a structured set of survey questions regarding the impact of COVID-19 on ICU family visitation and engagement and assessed content validity via an iterative process amongst FEC leadership From June 9 to July 17, we contacted the site leader of all 27 ICUs that had participated in the FEC and administered the survey by phone We also asked site leaders to provide a copy of their current visitor restriction policy RESULTS: 22/27 (81 5%) site leaders participated When asked about the peak of the pandemic in their respective ICUs, 2 sites (9 1%) reported having had a strict no-visitor policy without any exceptions The remaining sites all reported a variety of exceptions, with a majority allowing visitation for patients at the end-of-life Regarding current policies, all sites now have some visitor restriction exceptions in place, but with significant variability;at least half (12, 54 5%) of sites now permit at least 1 visitor for non-COVID patients during defined visitor hours Four sites (21 1%) reported that their hospital did not provide PPE to visitors 16 sites (84 2%) were unclear of their hospital's timeline for further relaxing visitor restrictions All but 1 site (95 5%) reported now using video conferencing with families;however, 10 sites (47 6%) reported clinicians' using their own personal devices for conferencing Among hospitals providing devices for staff, approximately 1 device had been provided on average for every 13 ICU beds CONCLUSIONS: While ICU visitor policies have somewhat relaxed since the peak of the pandemic, there is considerable uncertainty about how policies might change moving forward ICUs need additional resources to provide PPE for visitors and to ensure adequate video conferencing capabilities on hospital devices