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Hi it’s Patrik Hutzel from www.intensivecareathome.com.au where we provide tailor made solutions for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy 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 last week’s BLOG I talked about
You can check out last week’s blog here.
In this week’s blog I want to highlight
5 SERIOUS PROBLEMS AND FRUSTRATIONS THAT ARE NOT ADDRESSED FOR LONG-TERM VENTILATED ADULTS& CHILDREN WITH TRACHEOSTOMIES IN INTENSIVE CARE!
If you have worked in Intensive Care for any period of time you would have seen some if not many long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies!
And if you are a family member of a loved one who is ventilator dependent with tracheostomy in Intensive Care or at home, you could probably write a book about the struggles your loved one and your family are going through!
Whilst Intensive Care Units are the experts in looking after critically ill Patients, they are often not the experts when it comes to the management of long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies who have been in Intensive Care for many weeks or many months!
And anybody who has seen “Mr Smith” in Intensive Care who has been there for 6 months after he was first diagnosed with Guillan Barre syndrome, knows that Intensive Care is all but the ideal environment for “Mr Smith”.
There are a lot of needs for “Mr Smith” and his family that go unmet while being a long-term ventilated Patient with tracheostomy in Intensive Care!
In fact the issues, problems, struggles and frustrations “Mr Smith” and his family are dealing with can never be solved in an inhibiting and limiting Intensive Care environment, yet they can be solved in an intensive home care environment!
Let’s therefore take a closer look at the 5 biggest problems and frustrations that I’ve identified over the many years while working in Intensive Care and also in the Intensive Home care environment!
- Quality of life issues
Quality of life for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their families can never be achieved in Intensive Care! But it certainly can be achieved in a home care environment, where the right support structure is in place!
- Depression and lack of hope
Most long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care are depressed. They are depressed because of the environment they are in and they are depressed because they are sick.
Imagine only for a split second that you are stuck in Intensive Care on a ventilator for weeks or months to come, wouldn’t you get depressed and even lose hope?
The only solution to this massive dilemma is to provide a service that can get Patients out of Intensive Care!
Most long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their families in a home care environment are not depressed and they have hope for a better future!
- Lack of Family support for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies
Families of long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies often put their lives on hold when their loved one is stuck in Intensive Care on a ventilator!
Some family members stop working altogether during this crucial time when their loved one is stuck on a ventilator in Intensive Care!
Therefore, a Patient and family friendly home care service gives much needed time and space back to families.
- The massive costs for long term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care
Recent studies have shown that long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies (DRG’s AO6A and DRG AO6B) are the highest cost Patient population in Australia when it comes to their care and treatment in Intensive Care!
Other first world countries had similar problems and have addressed these problems successfully more than 15 years ago by changing care models, by changing paradigms and by creating and offering innovative services like INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME in order to solve the problem for ALL STAKEHOLDERS and ease the burden!
They offered Intensive Home Care nursing instead to long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and created win-win situations.
One of the results that was created by offering a win-win situation is to establish home mechanical ventilation guidelines in order to create standards to safely offer Intensive Home Care nursing services
https://intensivecareathome.com/mechanical-home-ventilation-guidelines/
Related article:
- The lack of advocacy for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their families!
Being long-term ventilated with tracheostomy is an ordeal there is no question about it!
Feeling unsupported and feeling like nobody understands what needs are unmet when faced with this massive challenge of being ventilator dependent with tracheostomy, is probably even worse!
There is very little or no advocacy in Australia for this Patient group and their families even though there is a growing number of people requiring services!
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME not only provides services to this Patient group and their families we are also advocates for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies!
What are your thoughts? Can you think of any other serious problems and frustrations that have not been addressed in Intensive Care for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies?
Leave your comments on the blog!
Please also note that INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME has been selected as a preferred provider for Queensland Health Services as part of the recent “Hospital in the Home” tender.
We are also currently hiring enthusiastic and experienced Intensive Care nurses with Critical Care certificate for a ventilated Melbourne Client, close to the CBD. For more information check out our Career section here www.intensivecareathome.com.au/careers or contact Patrik on 041 094 2230
You can also contact me on 041 094 2230 if you want to know more about how we can help you, your Intensive Care Unit and your Patients and Families.
Thank you for tuning into this week’s blog.
This is Patrik Hutzel from www.intensivecareathome.com.au and I’ll see you again in another update next week.