Patients' Priorities and Goals of Care During Intensive Care Unit Recovery: A Multicenter Cohort Study.

Background: Patients can experience multiple challenges following discharge from critical care. These can include physical, emotional, social and cognitive problems. There is limited data on what the important concepts or goals of care are within the ICU recovery setting from a patient perspective. Objectives: Using data from a multi-center ICU recovery program, we sought to explore patient goals and priorities during recovery from critical illness, with the aim of understanding optimal models of care for future research design and care delivery. Methods: Multi-center, descriptive cohort study. Patients who attended critical care recovery services following hospital discharge were recruited. During attendance, patients set goals of care with healthcare professionals. In this analysis, these goals of care were analyzed using Framework Analysis. Results: In total, 151 patients were recruited across three hospital sites in Scotland. 134 (88.7%) patients set personal goals. Across the patients attending, 314 goals were set and analyzed. We identified five categories from the documented goals; physical; health management; emotional and psychosocial; education, employment and purpose and social and interpersonal. Goals spanned both chronic disease management as well as those related to acute recovery following critical illness. Conclusions: This multi-center study has shown that survivors of critical illness have a variety of goals of care for recovery which span physical, social and emotional needs. Clinicians and researchers should consider these goals of care carefully when planning interventional research in this area to ensure that it meets patient need and expectations.