Intensive Care Units are designed to save lives - and they do. But what about a survivor’s quality of life after they leave hospital?

ICU survival rates continue to improve. Survival, however, does not always equate to full recovery. Survivors commonly have ongoing physical, cognitive and psychological complications. The physical and psychosocial environment can impact ICU patients and their families profoundly. Despite large recent improvements in medical care, there have been no similar advances in ICU design. With evidence demonstrating that noisy, bright and busy ICU environments negatively affect patient recovery, experience and longer-term outcomes, it is critical that the environment is re-conceptualised to meet patients’ recovery needs.

Recovering from critical illness can have devastating long-term side effects on a survivor’s mental & physical wellbeing. Current research suggests that up to 25 per cent of ICU patients can experience acute brain failure during their ICU admission, and for many survivors this can last long after they’ve returned home. The Critical Care Research Group is leading the world with a suite of projects designed to reshape and reconfigure the ICU environment to be more patient-focused, prioritising patients’ needs, healing and recovery while optimising clinical efficiencies.

Working hand in hand with clinicians, former patients and their families, and industry partners, the project aims to reduce the incidence of ICU Delirium and improve the experience and long-term outcomes of critically ill patients, optimising the quality of survival patients achieve after leaving the hospital.

The ICU of the Future is proudly supported by The Common Good.