Elderly patients need help recovering from the ICU—while they're still there

Despite the potential for weakness, memory issues and depression, many (about 1.4 million) elderly people are able to recover from an ICU visit, according to Kaiser Health News. But only if they have the proper familial and healthcare provider support that starts before they even go home.

In fact, researchers at Yale have been able to identify that more than half of all people over the age of 70 who stay in the ICU will be able to get back to their previous selves physically within six months and mentally in about a year—though the other half could die or see their health worsen in the same period of time.

Families and doctors who wish to see their loved ones and patients make a full recovery will need to start with a good dose of communication between each other and between each of them and the patient. That’s so everyone can be on the same page about the patient’s recovery goals and the efforts made to reach them.

According to Kaiser Health News, healthcare providers and families can provide patients several concrete steps during their stay in the ICU to set them up with the best possible chance for full recovery. Most of them are about keeping the patient focused on the future, emotionally comfortable and to not neglect regular physical health after the life-threatening condition has passed.

Some of those steps are telling the patient what is happening, keeping them moving and eating as normally as possible, planning for how care will continue when they go home and minimizing emotionally stressful or confusing situations by declining most types of sedation and making sure they have access to their regular glasses or hearing aids.

Alison Turnbull, a clinical care medicine assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University told Kaiser Health News, “Typically, doctors will be focused on technical concerns such as a patient’s hemoglobin or oxygen levels.”

But families and doctors shouldn’t forget the big picture of recovery, she said, which can often depend on the details of care that might fall through the cracks.