This petition was started to address the collective trauma of Covid-19 patients being separated from their families once hospitalized. Family presence at the bedside, along with regular communication between health care providers and their patients and families, are not indulgences — they need to be part of the standard of care. Having a loved one die alone, is INHUMANE and UNNACEPTABLE. There has to be a better solution then just saying NO to families trying to be there for a loved one during crisis. 

 Research consistently demonstrates the risks of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and complicated grief in family members of patients who die in ICUs. The added stress of having to wait by the phone for terrible updates or trying to navigate the myriad communication and visitation challenges wrought by Covid-19 will likely only deepen the trauma that families experience.

All hospitals must create programs to regularly allow families to see and talk to their loved ones throughout their hospitalization. The inequitable chaos of the status quo — usually a nurse scrambling to arrange a video chat, often on her or his personal phone — is unacceptable. Nearly 2 years into the pandemic, we should not still be trying to figure this out.