Society of Critical Care Medicine Guidelines on Family-Centered Care for Adult ICUs: 2024

To review updated evidence for family support in adult ICUs, provide clear recommendations, and spotlight optimal family-centered care practices post-pandemic. PANEL DESIGN: The multiprofessional guideline panel of 28 individuals, including family member partners, applied the processes described in the Society of Critical Care Medicine Standard Operating Procedures Manual to develop and publish evidence-based recommendations in alignment with the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Conflict-of-interest policies were strictly followed in all phases of the guidelines, including panel selection, writing, and voting.

The guidelines consist of four content sections: engagement of families, support of family needs, communication support, and support of ICU clinicians providing family-centered care. We conducted systematic reviews for 15 Population, Intervention, Control, and Outcomes questions, organized among these content sections, to identify the best available evidence. We summarized and assessed the certainty of evidence using the GRADE approach. We used the GRADE evidence-to-decision framework to formulate recommendations as strong or conditional, or as best practice statements where appropriate. The recommendations were approved using an online vote requiring greater than 80% agreement of voting panel members to pass.