Allowing patients to THRIVE, not just survive - welcome to CCRG’s “ICU of the Future”

With up to 75 per cent of ICU patients globally experiencing physical, cognitive, or psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD after their ICU admission, a group of senior clinicians committed to changing those statistics have dedicated several years to determine why these figures were so high and come up with an alternative ICU bedspace design.

Patients who had experienced an ICU admission and their families played an essential part in guiding the redesign as they shared their stories and shed light on design and environmental stressors that negatively impacted them during and after their stay in the ICU.

“Outcomes in intensive care in Australia are fantastic… but we realised more and more as we started to delve into it, that people were surviving but that they weren’t thriving. They were going home, they were having terrible nightmares, and terrible hallucinations, they were not getting back to work, and they were left with incapacity. We realised the severe impact of delirium – reversible brain failure,” said Professor John Fraser, CCRG Founder and Director.

From baseline studies completed over five years, design and environmental challenges found to negatively impact patient outcomes and long-term recovery included the lack of natural light, social isolation, and noise pollution from constant alarms and other sources day and night. Noise monitoring conducted as part of the research showed that the noise levels during the daytime weresimilar to a busy motorway. At night, peak noise levels were similar to a lawn mower operating close by.

“We had to build a team of former patients and their family members, clinicians, and researchers with relevant experience from ICU. There were also a lot of external partners because we could not have solved all these problems without talking to the right people – so we worked with leading IT companies, architects, designers, builders, and tech companies, to name a few,” Project Manager Oystein Tronstad said.

Some of the most significant innovations in the new ICU bedspaces include virtual windows to provide a view in the two windowless bedspaces, bespoke lighting solutions to mimic natural light and support circadian rhythms, architectural design to feel less clinical and more “homely”, acoustic panels that are fully cleanable yet able to absorb noise and state-of-the-art beds for improved comfort and connectivity.

“These redesigned spaces and their innovations aim to optimise healing and recovery while ensuring clinical efficiencies remain at the highest standard.”

“The ICU of The Future aims to reduce the incidence of ICU Delirium and improve the experience and long-term outcomes of critically ill patients, optimising the quality-of-life patients can expect to enjoy after leaving the hospital,” said Oystein Tronstad.

As the first patients have now been admitted to the space, the next phase of the research project is underway. It involves collecting data to assess and quantify the impacts and effectiveness of these spaces. That work will include analysing patients’ sleep waves to investigate the quantity and quality of sleep. Researchers will also examine patients’ stress hormones and circadian rhythms and investigate how well patients recover physically, cognitively, and psychologically after their ICU admission.

The article originally appear in The Prince Charles Hospital’s 2022 Research Report, published with thanks to the generous support of the Study Education Research Trust Account and The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation, via The Common Good. Full version available here.