Visiting adult patients in intensive care: The importance of relatives’ travel and time costs

Summary 

Families of critically ill patients consistently rate visiting and being near their relative as very important. However, the costs incurred by families whilst visiting have received little attention. This study investigated the personal costs to informal caregivers (families, relatives and friends) visiting critically ill patients in an intensive care unit (ICU). The purpose of the study was (1) to test the feasibility of collecting data from informal caregivers visiting critically ill relatives and (2) to estimate the personal costs incurred by them. Data were collected by self-completed questionnaires over a 2-week period on out-of-pocket expenses and time foregone.

Results

One hundred and seven informal caregivers were invited to participate in the study. Fifty-four completed the questionnaire (response 50%). Forty-eight percent of respondents were male and 52% female. Fifty-nine percent of participants were in paid employment, and of these 16% lost wages as a result of the visit. The mean cost of time foregone was £46.21/visit ($66.92) and mean out-of-pocket expenses £29.30 ($42.43).

Conclusion

It is feasible to collect data on expenses and time foregone from informal caregivers visiting the ICU. The main out-of-pocket expense was that related to travel. More empirical work is needed across different settings to obtain more generalisable estimates of out-of-pocket expenses and time foregone.

Keywords: Intensive care, Relatives, Private costs, Visiting