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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com where we provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies at home, and where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units at home whilst providing quality care for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies at home, otherwise medically complex adults and children at home, which includes home BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), home CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), home tracheostomy care for adults and children that are not ventilated, Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), home IV potassium infusions, home IV magnesium infusions, as well as home IV antibiotics. We also provide port management, central line management, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line management, as well as Hickman’s line management, and we also provide palliative care services at home.
We’re also sending our critical care nurses into the home for emergency department bypass services as we have done so successfully in the past for the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, they’re in-touch program.
In essence, we are saving 50% of the cost of an intensive care bed and we’re saving roughly $2,000 for the cost of an ED admission by providing the ED bypass service at home. So, significant improvement in quality of life for patients and their families, but also a significant cost-saving, all in all a win-win situation.
So today, I have an email from Arlene who says,
“Hi Patrik,
My husband is 70 years of age. He has Parkinson’s disease. Last year, he got RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus), recovered in about a week, then went to a rehab for physical therapy and rehabilitation. A few days later, he got COVID, which was going around in the rehab facility.
He went back to hospital. He was given food and his pills orally. He was found in his room with hypoxia, barely able to breathe. He was given oxygen and sent to radiology for imaging of brain and heart. I thank the one above there was no damage. However, he had severe aspiration pneumonia.
He went to ICU for 1 month. Initially, he was on a ventilator, then BIPAP, then feeding tube, then a tracheostomy was suggested. I got a second opinion, and I was told that a tracheostomy would save his life.
He then stayed in ICU for a long period of time, and he was not medically treated there very well so that his treatment continued. The hospital eventually did a great job helping him to recover. Finally, got him off the ventilator for periods of time and he has been further recovering and has gained back some strength and weight.
Recently, I was told by his respiratory therapist and pulmonologist that removing his tracheostomy would jeopardize his life and is not an option. He has a good strong cough to get out his secretions and he’s deep suctioned two or three times a day.
He desperately wants to come back home, which I want very much. However, because he has Parkinson’s disease and the tracheostomy and feeding tube and he’s not able to walk, he would need 24-hour nursing and some hours of nursing aid available as well for manual handling, et cetera.
I definitely cannot pay out of pocket. I recently completed all steps required to get the ball rolling for home care, which includes a hospital bed and equipment. However, I believe that it might be too expensive to get him home. Can you please help? We absolutely want your service.”
So, Arlene, thank you so much for writing in and thank you for detailing your situation. Well, this is definitely a situation where we can help you. We’ve helped so many clients in a similar situation.
The only problem that I can see, well it’s not really a problem, it’s just an obstacle to work around. Your husband is 70 years of age and doesn’t qualify for the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), which means we need to get funding through Department of Health or through private health fund.
But the bottom line is someone is paying $5,000, $6,000 a day for an ICU bed, which means, we can pay half of that and get Intensive Care at Home. It’s a win-win situation. There’s also the human aspect to improve his quality of life at home. Clearly, he has no quality of life in the ICU and it’s time for him to go home after all these months in ICU.
So, bringing this case to the Department of Health or to the private health insurance, again, it’s a win-win situation. Nothing short of that.
So, the next step is that you and I get together and talk to the health insurance or to the Department of Health and get the ball rolling. We have been involved successfully in the advocacy for our clients from Day 1 and otherwise we wouldn’t be in business.
So, it’s good that you’ve reached out. We just need to take the next steps confidently and get your husband home as quickly as possible and free up the ICU bed. The ICU has an interest to free up the bed. There’s patients knocking at the door of the ICU bed. Once again, it’s a win-win situation.
Now, with Intensive Care at Home, we are currently operating all around Australia and in all major capital cities as well as in all regional and rural areas. We are an NDIS approved service provider in Australia, TAC (Transport Accident Commission) and WorkSafe in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, and NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme in Queensland), as well as the DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) all around the country. Our clients also receive funding through public hospitals, private health funds, as well as departments of health.
We are the only provider in Australia in 2024 that has achieved third-party accreditation organization for Intensive Care at Home nursing. No other provider has created policies and procedures for Intensive Care at Home and this much intellectual property in the community than we have. We are therefore in a position to employ hundreds of years of critical care nursing experience in the community combined.
We’re also providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination. Our NDIS Support Coordinator, Amanda Riches in Victoria, as well as Rosie Hammer in New South Wales, have a wealth of knowledge in their team and I’ll put a link towards a video where I did an interview with Amanda a while ago. We are also providing TAC case management in Victoria.
If you’re at home already and you realize you’re on a ventilator, tracheostomy, BIPAP, CPAP, Home TPN, and whatever the case may be, and you realize that your current setup is not working, that you go back to ICU all the time, that your team is potentially fragmented, no cohesion, you have no clinical governance, please reach out to us as well because we know that there are many vulnerable clients in the community who are at risk of dying if they’re not getting Intensive Care at Home.
Many clients have died in the community on ventilation, tracheostomy, sometimes even without a ventilator and just a tracheostomy without ICU nurses, 24 hours a day. It is evidence-based that you need ICU nurses, 24 hours a day, and those ICU nurses need to have worked in ICU for a minimum of two years only that makes it safe. Otherwise, your life is at risk and it’s evidence-based when you look at the Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines on our website, I will link towards that.
You might also be stuck in a hospital like Arlene’s husband in a similar situation. So, if that is the case and you want to go home, please reach out to us at intensivecareathome.com.
If you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator watching this and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, please reach out to us as well. Or if you’re looking for funding for more nursing care for your participants and you don’t know how to go about it or what evidence to provide, I also encourage you to reach out to us. We can help you with the advocacy and we also provide NDIS specialist nursing assessments done by critical care nurses and legal nurse consultants.
If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change, we’re currently offering jobs for critical care nurses in the home in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Albury, Wodonga, in Bendigo in Victoria, as well as in Warragul in Victoria and in Geelong. If you have worked in critical care for a minimum of two years pediatric ICU, ED, and you have already completed a postgraduate critical care qualification, we are delighted to hear from you.
I have a disclaimer though because we are offering a tailor-made solution for our clients, which includes regular staff, our clients will have the same staff coming over and over again because they are very vulnerable and so special.
It’s all about building those critical relationships with our clients and with our team members and having regular and stable teams. That means if you’re looking for agency work where you can come and go, working for Intensive Care at Home may actually not be the right fit for you on a long-term basis because our clients want the same staff coming back over and over again. So, it’s all about building critical relationships with our clients and their families and we want to build relationships with you as well, of course, so that it remains a win-win situation.
If you’re an intensive care specialist or an ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We’re currently expanding our medical team as well. We can also help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU and ED for your long-term patients or for your regular readmitting patients. We’re here to help you to take the pressure off your ICUs and ED beds, and in most cases, you won’t even pay for it.
If you are a hospital executive watching this and you have bed blocks in your ICU, in ED, and respiratory wards, please reach out to us as well. We can help you there.
Lastly, if you’re in the U.S. or in the U.K. and you’re watching this and you need help, we can help you there privately.
Once again, contact us at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].
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Thank you so much for watching.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com and I will talk to you in a few days.
Take care for now.