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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

Can you go home on CPAP/BIPAP ventilation?

You can check out last week’s blog here!

In this week’s blog I want to share

5 ways to reduce the average length of stay in Intensive Care for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies!

Long-term mechanical ventilation in Intensive Care with tracheostomy has a lot of components attached to it and the subject matter tends to be very complex!

Some of it are positive and some of it are negative.

The positive side of it is that lives can be saved and that long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies are able to live once their lives have been saved.

However to then stay in Intensive Care for long periods of time is not ideal and long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their families suffer unnecessarily by staying in Intensive Care for way longer than necessary.

In fact average length of stay according to some ICU and PICU data in Australia can be for up to 12-15 months for some long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies!

This is way too long and can be drastically reduced and the average length of stay can be reduced to sometimes a few weeks or a couple of months with the right support structure and the right mindset.

The cost for staying in ICU/PICU for up to 12-15 months is enormous and can be up to $2 Million for 12 months.

This has been documented and evidenced by the Australian Independent Hospital Pricing Authority IHPA.

Therefore let’s look at 5 ways on how to achieve a win-win situation for all stakeholders when it comes long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies by reducing their average length of stay(ALOS).

1. Specialised and accredited services like INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME are an extension to Intensive Care services and help to minimise costs by up to 50% and improve the quality of life for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies

 

2. Discharge planning for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies needs to be commenced on the day when Patients have a tracheostomy inserted to ensure that they are having the option to go home directly from Intensive Care

3. Hospitals, Intensive Care Units, Departments of health and Private health funds need to be more accountable for savings in their budget and look at solutions like INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME to reduce their spending by up to 50%. DRG’s AO6A and AO6B(=DRG’s for long-term ventilation with tracheostomies in ICU) are the second highest ranking DRG’s in terms of cost in Australia

 

4. INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is successfully copying a model of care from Germany that has been proven to work as an extension to Intensive Care Units and it’s reducing the average length of stay and it’s reducing cost to as low as 50% by delivering high quality services in a home care environment

 

5. This also frees up much needed bed capacity in Intensive Care and it enables ICU’s/PICU’s to admit people that are in real need of a critical care bed and are acutely unwell! Again, everybody is winning!

 

What are your thoughts?

Do you think that 12-15 months average length of stay for some long-term ventilated adults& children is acceptable?

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.

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.au/careers or contact Patrik on 041 094 2230 or simply hit reply to this email.

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.

We are also a TAC and DVA(Department of Veteran affairs) approved community service provider

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!