As clinical psychologists working in the hospital, we often meet family members suffering from being separated from their loved ones during intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalization because of restricted visiting hours. In many institutions, expanding ICU visiting hours and opening ICUs to family members, including children, are not common practice.2  Among the fears associated with open visitation and reported by clinicians are increased infections, concerns for patients’ health, and interference with the provision of care. However, over the last decade, studies have shown that adopting an open ICU visiting policy does not expose patients to additional risk for infection.3  On the contrary, open visiting policies were proven to positively influence patients’ health by decreasing cardiovascular complications, delirium, anxiety, hormonal markers of stress, and days of recovery.4,5  We suggest that an open visiting policy, which preserves the patient-family member relationship at times of severe illness, may...

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