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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 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 shared
You can check out last week’s blog here.
In this week’s blog I want to share
HOW TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE FUNDING FOR LONG-TERM VENTILATED ADULTS& CHILDREN WITH TRACHEOSTOMIES!
Long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care have the second highest ranking costs of all DRG’s(DRG= Diagnosis Related Groups) in Australia attached to them!
Only LVAD insertion is more expensive!
The total cost for looking after long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care was $ 435,900,328 in FY 2010-2011 or to put it in words, four hundred Million, nine hundred and three hundred and twenty eight dollars in total!
That’s close to $200,000 funding per Patient with an average length of stay of close to 50 days in Intensive Care!
You can look up the most recent statistics here on the National Hospital Cost Data Collection Australian public hospitals Cost Report 2010-2011, Round 15
Most of those long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care wouldn’t have any quality of life and once out of the most acute phase and once off inotropes, there is often no need to keep those Patients in Intensive Care and prolong their suffering unnecessarily in a limiting and inhibiting Intensive Care environment!
It’s very interesting to find that those massive expenses for DRG’s AO6A and AO6B (DRG’s for ventilation with tracheostomy) are being ignored by clinicians, politicians, by the federal health minister and also by state health ministers!
Innovation and Patient focus is the key to achieve sustainable funding!
In order to contain the massive cost burden, achieve sustainable funding and also improve the quality of life and/or quality of end of life for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies, other first world countries, such as Germany have way more innovative and way more cost effective solutions to this massive dilemma!
Other first world countries have similar problems in this area of Intensive Care, however they realised nearly 20 years ago that the expenses, as well as the poor quality of life for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care are not sustainable!
By continuing to treat long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care and spend up to $5,000 dollars per bed day in Intensive Care, block a precious, expensive, “in-demand” and scarce ICU bed and leave long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care and leave long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care and their families with no quality of life, way more holistic, innovative and cost-effective solutions have been developed!
And you guessed it, instead of continuing to treat medically stable long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care, treatment is continuing at home with specialised Intensive Home Care nursing services!
Everybody wins, by having a more cost- effective and also way more holistic and Patient and family friendly model of care in an Intensive Home Care environment!
Plus Intensive Care Units have an empty bed available that can be used for another critically ill Patient in need of an Intensive Care bed!
Everybody wins!
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is providing similar services and we exclusively work with Critical care registered nurses who have a minimum of 2 years clinical ICU experience or who have a Critical Care certificate or the equivalent!
We can help your ICU to free up beds, cut the costs and improve the quality of life for your long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their families!
What are your thoughts?
Do you think costs and the quality of life for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies are sustainable in Intensive Care when funding bodies continue to pay up to $5,000 per bed day in Intensive Care?
Leave your comments on the blog here.
We are also currently hiring enthusiastic and experienced Intensive Care nurses with Critical Care certificate for ventilated 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 send me an email to [email protected]
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 INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME and I’ll see you again in another update next week.