An intensive care unit (ICU) is a special facility within the hospital area that provides intensive medicine for those patients with a serious health condition that puts their lives at risk and therefore requires constant monitoring of their vital signs and others. parameters, and permanent control of its situation.
According to the most authoritative sources, the first ICU was implemented in August 1952, at the Blegdam hospital in Copenhagen, as a personal initiative of the anesthetist Bjorn Aage Ibsen to more efficiently address the polio epidemic that was wreaking havoc in Denmark.
Starting in the sixties of the last century, this type of installation became widespread in all hospitals in Europe and America.
After many years of development, experimentation and advances, ICUs have entered a new phase. In the words of Ainhoa Solsona, nursing supervisor of the ICU at Hospital Quirónsalud in Barcelona, "it is time to improve the quality and humanization of care for our patients and that our care, in addition to physical well-being, has a special focus on well-being. emotional of the patient and his family.
To this end, this hospital in Barcelona has launched the ICU Open Doors Program, whose objective is to ensure that family members and companions are closer to the patients thanks to a more flexible schedule that will allow them to be with them at different times. for the whole day. It is about promoting more personal attention to the patient to promote a calmer stay that works towards the best evolution of the patient.
The problem of ICUs has always been in the isolation conditions in which the patient is found at very critical moments for their state of health. And, although traditionally the health personnel of these facilities have been specially trained to meet their emotional needs, at least in their harshest aspects, there was still a lot to advance in this regard.
With this perspective of humanization, from now on, the Quirónsalud Barcelona Hospital has extended its hours and allows its patients to be closer to their family and friends to facilitate communication between them as much as possible, as well as contact with the medical teams and of nursing.
The Hospital has created the figure of the main caregiver, a member of the patient's family who will be able to accompany the patient for as long as possible in a time slot from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has also made the visiting hours of family members and companions more flexible, who will be able to visit the patient at different times throughout the day. However, given that the priority is the well-being and correct evolution of the patients, the schedules can be modified at any time according to their needs or the circumstances of the care team.
This new vision of the ICU seeks the involvement of families, to whom the care that can be carried out safely at all times is indicated. In this way, an environment of trust and collaboration is created that has a very beneficial effect on patients and brings a radical change to the ICUs, humanizing and completing their contribution to the general health of patients.
