Since critical care began over 50 years ago, there have been tremendous advances in the science and practice that allow more severely ill and injured patients to survive.Each year, millions of people are discharged back to the community. The recognition of long-term consequences for ICU survivors and their families is a growing concern. Critical care practitioners have always known that the patients have a long road to recovery after discharge from the ICU. In the 2 past decades, research has revealed how remarkably common and devastating long-term consequences of critical illness can be and how much some patients and their families suffer (1–9). These consequences in patients are referred to as postinten-
sive care syndrome (PICS) and in families as postintensive care syndrome-family (PICS-F).