Experiences and Quality of Life in Critically Ill Patients: Can Technology Lead to Improvements?

Unlabelled: Experiences and outcomes of critically ill patients reflect quality of intensive care. The aim of this study was twofold: a) to investigate factors affecting patients' experiences to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and b) to measure patients' post discharge Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL).

Methods: A cross-sectional study with retrospective data collection was carried out. The participants (n=108) were discharged patients from four ICUs of three military hospitals in Athens. Telephone interviews were conducted using the "Patient Empowerment Questionnaire" and "Quality of life Questionnaire".

Results: Patients suffering from pain (p<0.001), polytraumatized or patients underwent a "non-scheduled surgery" (p=0.001) reported worse sleep at night. Mechanical ventilation was associated positively with pain relief (p=0.021). Extended length of stay (p<0.001), bad health status prior ICU admission (p=0.005), "polytrauma" and "non-scheduled surgery" patients (p=0.032), mechanical ventilation (p=0.005) and pain during ICU stay (p=0.04) were correlated with worse HRQOL after discharge.

Conclusions: ICU staff must consider the factors that affected patients' experiences during their ICU stay and worsened HRQOL after discharge. Adoption of new technological innovations could help them to improve the quality of intensive care provided.