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Hi it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME where we provide tailor made solutions for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomies by improving their Quality of life and where we also provide tailor made solutions to hospitals and Intensive Care Units to save money and resources, whilst providing Quality Care!
In the last blog I shared
You can check out last week’s blog here!
In this week’s blog I want to share another hot topic with you when it comes to long-term ventilated adults& children with traceostomies in Intensive Care and the topic this week is
The 3 most dangerous trends facing long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies!
With the ever increasing numbers of adults and children surviving Intensive Care treatment and therapy, comes an increase in numbers of people requiring long-term ventilation with tracheostomies.
This also comes with huge challenges for Intensive Care Units, their Patients and their families!
Often long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care stay in ICU for far too long or they don’t get given the chance to get a tracheostomy in the first place because Intensive Care Units are worried that Patients take up precious, expensive and “in-demand” Intensive Care beds for too long.
After having worked in Intensive Care for nearly 20 years in three different countries as well as after having worked with many long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in an Intensive Home Care environment I know that most long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies stay in Intensive Care for way too long and are denied quality home care for a number of reasons!
Therefore dangerous trends are emerging that need to be addressed in order to provide timely and cost effective quality care that give Patients and their families the best quality of life there is!
Let’s look at those dangerous trends in detail
- Long term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies are not given choice and options
When long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies are in Intensive Care or LTAC(Long term acute care) for too long, they tend to be depressed because of their condition and their situation.
Taking those Patients home with a quality and accredited service like INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides them with choice and options that provide a win-win situation because
- INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is way more cost effective compared to a stay in Intensive Care or LTAC
- It provides Patients and their families with a much improved quality of life
- It provides Patients, their families and Hospitals with choice and options rather than the current “one size fits all” approach
- Long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their families have no lobby and are being sidelined! If anything they need strong advocacy!
Most long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies have no lobby and they often end up dying in Intensive Care or they end up on a hospital ward on a ventilator, being looked after by non-skilled and non-trained staff to look after people on ventilators and tracheostomies!
If they are lucky enough to go home, they often end up being looked after by cheap and non-accredited service providers, with Patients ending up with regular readmissions back to Intensive Care because non-accredited and non-specialised service providers lack the skills and know-how how to look after long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies!
Patients often end up in a vicious cycle with numerous Intensive Care readmissions that could be prevented by going home with quality services like INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME!
What also happens quite regularly is long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies going home with no support at all, leaving the burden on the family! Families are then often left with the dilemma of having to look after one of their family members whilst losing the ability to produce an income.
Again, INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME can help with all of those issues as we have a proven concept to keep long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies out of Intensive Care predictably!
- Many long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies end up with inappropriate treatment limitations such as NFR(Not for resuscitation) or DNR(Do not resuscitate) orders!
Many clinicians in Intensive Care are under the impression that life is not worth living when Patients face long-term ventilation with tracheostomies!
People have differing views and that’s great and needs to be respected, however saying to somebody that living on a ventilator with tracheostomy is a life not worth living simply limits the options for people that want to live at home with the right support structure and with the right family support.
Many clinicians think that people on ventilators with tracheostomies have no quality of life and that’s simply not true.
They have no quality of life in Intensive Care, but they have quality of life at home when looked after by a quality service like INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME.
What are your thoughts?
Would you want your family member at home or in a hospital? Leave your comments on the blog.
For more information and how we can help your long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies, you can contact me on 041 094 2230 or email [email protected]
We are also currently hiring enthusiastic and experienced Intensive Care nurses with Critical Care certificate for Clients in Melbourne/Australia.
We would also like to hear from you if you have a minimum of 2 years Paediatric ICU experience, as we have opportunities here as well!
For more information check out our Career section here www.intensivecareathome.com/careers or contact Patrik on +61 41 094 2230 in Australia, +1 415-915-0090 in USA/Canada or on +44 118 324 3018 in the UK/Ireland or simply send an email to [email protected]
We are also a NDIS, TAC(Victoria) and DVA(Department of Veteran affairs) approved community service provider in Australia.
Thank you for tuning into this week’s blog.
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME and I see you again next week in another update!