For an open-door, more comfortable and humane intensive care unit. It is time for change

The Intensive Care Unit is a wonderful place where lives are saved, but it is also a very harsh and unpleasant place where critically ill patients face terrible diseases in very adverse environmental conditions. We must change the design of the ICU and its organization; we must improve privacy, welfare and comfort of patients and families, following their personal and emotional demands. To free up the visiting hours and to improve family care are among our most urging matters, which we should delay no further. We must equip the ICUs with modern monitors and respirators but we must also invest in organization, design, environmental comfort and humanization. We need to redesign clinical practise so that ICU care becomes more agreeable and humane. We should put off this change no longer, since it is an imperative social and professional demand. (C) 2013 Elsevier Espana, S.L. and SEMICYUC. All rights reserved.