A National VA Palliative Care Quality Improvement Project for Improving Intensive Care Unit Family Meetings (ICU-FMs)

We sought to increase intensive care unit-family meeting (ICU-FM) documentation in the electronic health record in Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals.

Primary outcomes were proportion of VA decedents with ICU-FM and Bereaved Family Survey-Performance Measure (BFS-PM) scores of "excellent."

Quality improvement (QI) project, clinical champion, and ICU-FM templates were implemented in nine participating VA facilities. ICU-FMs and BFS-PM were determined in decedents between 2011 and 2018.

ICU-FM increased from 3% to 28% in participating vs. 5% to 6% in nonparticipating facilities over time. Participating facilities were five-fold more likely to have ICU-FMs among ICU decedents (OR = 5.69, [4.45-7.28]). Facility-wide excellent BFS-PM scores increased by 19% in participating vs. nonparticipating facilities at the end of the observation period (OR = 1.19, [1.10-1.30]), but no difference between groups was observed in patients who died in the ICU.

Increasing ICU-FMs is necessary but not sufficient to improve family-reported satisfaction after an ICU death.