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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 and where we also provide tailor made solutions for hospitals and Intensive Care Units whilst providing quality services for long-term ventilated patients and medically complex patients at home, including home TPN.
In last week’s blog, I talked about,
CAN INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME BE USED FOR LONG-TERM VENTILATED CHILDREN WITH TRACHEOSTOMY?
You can check out last week’s blog by clicking on the link below this video:
In today’s blog post, I want to answer a question from one of our clients and the question today is
My Sister is in Hospital on TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), Can She Go Home with Intensive Care at Home? Live stream!
Welcome to another Intensive Care Hotline and Intensive Care At Home live stream. I want to welcome our viewers all around the world, wherever you are.
Today’s topic is about, “My sister is in intensive care and in hospital on TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition). Can she go home with Intensive Care at Home?”
It’s a question we’re getting quite frequently at Intensive Care Hotline, but also at Intensive Care At Home. And many families really having no idea as well what TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition) is. And I’ll break all of this down in a minute.
Just some housekeeping issues, type your questions into the chat pad. I can also get you live on this YouTube live stream. I’ll give you my phone numbers a bit later, so you can then dial in live if you like and ask your questions live, but let’s go through today’s topic first. If you have questions, type them in. Try and keep them to today’s topic. But if you have any other questions related to your loved one being in intensive care or anything that’s related to it or needing Intensive Care At Home, I will answer them at the end of the presentation.
So before we dive into today’s topic, I want to just quickly share a little bit about myself. You might be wondering what makes me qualified to talk about today’s topic.
So I’ve worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries. Out of those 20 years, I’ve worked for over five years as a nurse unit manager in intensive care, worked as a clinical nurse specialist in intensive care. I’m also the founder of Intensive Care At Home where we are predominantly looking after long term intensive care patients in the home.
We’ve been operating this service successfully for the last eight years. And we are looking after a number of long term, mainly ventilated patients in the community at Intensive Care At Home. We’re pretty much running a “small ICU” in the community and keeping patients out of ICU, enabling them to live at home, improving their quality of life. And in some instances, quality of end of life at home, rather than in intensive care.
As part of this Intensive Care At Home service, we are also providing home TPN, which is our topic today. And also as part of what I’m doing as part of the Intensive Care Hotline, I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013, either online by providing free content videos, blog posts, questions answered, doing live streams like today and also over the phone via email. Sometimes in person. I’ve been to family meetings in person.
Hi, Modema how are you? Nice to see you again. So that’s giving you a quick overview about why I am qualified to talk about today’s topic. And also as part of our Intensive Care At Home nursing service, we are looking after patients at home on home TPN. But many of you might not have even heard of TPN and you might be wondering what is TPN?
TPN stands for total parenteral nutrition. What that basically means is, it means it’s intravenous nutrition. It is being used when other forms of nutrition, either eating and drinking through oral intake, or what often happens in intensive care or in hospitals is through a nasogastric tube or a PEG tube are not possible.
Sometimes orogastric tubes are being used as well, which means nutrition is being given through a tube through the mouth. So there are several options to give nutrition when someone is in intensive care. And if all of them fail, then TPN might be a solution.
And obviously because it’s a solution in ICU or in hospitals, it’s also a solution for home. But I’ll come to that a little bit later to answer today questions; “My Sister is in Hospital on TPN, Can She Go Home with Intensive Care at Home?” I’ll elaborate on that after we’ve gone through what is TPN, what is it being used for and so forth.
So what are conditions for use of TPN or total parenteral nutrition? Abnormal connections between two organs also known as a fistula, bowel obstruction, Crohn’s disease, gastrointestinal cancer, intestinal failure, malnutrition, gastrectomy, which is basically the removal of the stomach, short bowel syndrome, but also conditions such as dysfunction in gut motility, malabsorption, gastroparesis, ischemic bowel disease and abnormal bowel functions. That’s in a nutshell when TPN is being used. So with those conditions in mind, what needs to happen if TPN is being given? So what needs to happen next is a patient or a client needs a central venous catheter or needs a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) or a Hickman’s line. They’re all intravenous lines where the tip is sitting close to the right ventricle or close to the heart.
Why is this important? It’s important because TPN can’t be given through a peripheral line or a peripheral catheter. It requires a central line because otherwise it causes some pain and inflammation when it’s given through a PICC line. The consistency of TPN is too thick to be given through a peripheral line. So when are central lines, PICC lines or Hickman lines being used? They are predominantly used in intensive care. They are predominantly used for long term infusions, like long term IV antibiotics, chemotherapy, but also for TPN. And that means patients can go home as long as they have a central line or PICC line or a Hickman’s line for home TPN. But those lines generally speaking, need the skill of an ICU nurse to be managed because those lines are not easy to be used. One needs to know what to do with those lines so that they don’t block, that they don’t get infected. And that the lines stay patent and that they can stay in for a long time.
A central line, for example, should be changed every seven days. Now, if a central line should be changed every seven days for infection control purposes, it’s not the right line to go home with. A PICC line can stay in sometimes up to 12 months, so can a Hickman’s line. So they are probably more purpose built for home TPN. Now I know there are some long term central lines now as well, that can stay in longer. I’m not all too familiar with them. I’m more familiar with the PICC lines and the Hickman lines. But either way is absolutely fine that those lines are being used.
Now you might have a loved one in intensive care that needs TPN, and is still on a ventilator with the breathing tube. Might be on inotropes, might be on vasopressors, might be on dialysis, might have all sorts of complications at the moment. Can they still go home? Well, we are certainly able to take home someone on a ventilator with a tracheostomy and the TPN, as long as they are otherwise stable. If you are finding that your loved one is in a position like that, you should definitely contact us if we can help you. We probably can.
And before we go on, also like the video if you find value in it. Give it a thumbs up. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates for families in intensive care, including the live streams that I do every week. Comment below what questions you have and share the video. If you feel like other people could benefit from this video, share it. Share it with your friends, with your family and anyone you know that has a loved one in intensive care or wants to leave intensive care or doesn’t have enough support at home.
So we have so many families coming to us and saying, “Hey, my sister is in ICU, or my sister is in hospital on TPN. She’s got cancer and the hospital says she can’t go home.” Well, as we’ve shown over and over again with Intensive Care At Home, we can take patients home from intensive care or from other areas of the hospital if they’re on TPN and provide care at home with intensive care nurses. And why is that important? It brings me back to the PICC line and the central line and the Hickman’s line. It needs the skill of an ICU nurse to manage those lines, to keep them patent, to flush them properly, needs to be done sterile. You need a sterile technique in order to prevent infections, line infections. Change the dressings once a week, generally speaking.
And again, that is a very difficult skill to change a central line dressing or a PICC line dressing or a Hickman’s dressing because the line mustn’t come out while you change the dressing, and it needs to be done sterile so that no infection is happening. Because the last thing you want is for someone at home on TPN to develop an infection so that they need to return back to hospital or back to ICU even.
So once those lines are established, then you can go home. Assuming that the nursing service is in place, which we can help you with here at Intensive Care At Home. So what needs to happen?
What needs to happen next is obviously you need the doctors to prescribe the TPN. You need the doctors to prescribe any add-ons such as Cernevit or any other add-ons, electrolytes, vitamins. You need to speak to your doctor about that. Once that’s been done, you need to arrange the TPN deliveries to your home. That can be done through your hospital pharmacy, sometimes it can be done through your local pharmacy. Sometimes it comes from the manufacturer themselves.
Now I’ll mention a couple of manufacturers here, but I’m not affiliated with any of them and I’m not recommending one over the other. It’s just manufacturers of TPN that we’ve come across. One of them is Baxter, and one of them is Fresenius, but I am not endorsing one over the other. But they are companies who manufacture TPN and it’s a lifeline for people. We are very grateful to any of those companies that helps our clients and helps us to keep our clients at home and improve their quality of life at home and gets them out of hospital and out of ICU.
So then obviously you need to have a nursing roster in place. Again, we can help you with that here at Intensive Care At Home. If you are in Australia, you should contact us and you should get funding from the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), you should get funding from hospitals depending on what your funding body is through hospitals directly, maybe through the DVA (Department of Veterans Affairs), maybe through Aged Care, maybe through the TAC (Transport Accident Commission) or other providers, other insurance schemes. You should definitely contact us. We can help you with all of that. We can also help you with specialist support coordination. We have a specialized support coordinator to help you with funding through the NDIS. Again, you should contact us through our website. Call us or send us an email to [email protected]
Next, so once everything has been in place, funding, nursing care, you need an intensive care nurse for the time when TPN is running. You can’t just hook it on and hook it off. Why is that important? So one of the complications when TPN is running is that there could be an air alarm in the pump, in the line. So basically when TPN is running, it can’t just run via gravity. It needs to run through an infusion pump. And most of our clients, they get like 1500 mls per day, over a 16 or 24-hour period. And it’s running 100, 120 mls an hour. The risk is that like with any infusion, that there’s air in the infusion line. And obviously air can’t go into the veins. That could be lethal. And those infusion pumps are set up in a way that they detect air alarm or that they detect air in line and they alarm, and then the air needs to be removed.
And again, that is a specialist skill that often only intensive care nurses have, making sure that no air is going into the patient’s or client’s veins. Because you might have to disconnect the lines. Again, that needs to be done sterile. You might have to remove the air. Again, a specialist skill that only ICU nurses have.
Next, when the infusion is complete you again, have to disconnect, sterile. You have to flush the line. You have to lock it. And what do I mean by that? When I say you have to lock it, you have to lock it with medication such as Hep-Lock, Heparin Lock or TauroLock. It’s a minimum amount of a blood thinner that gets injected into the PICC line or Hickman’s line lumen so that the lumen doesn’t block while it’s inactive. And again, specialist skill that most of the time only ICU nurses have, because that’s what they need to do in ICU with central lines and PICC lines, and also Vascaths for dialysis. So they’re very skilled at doing that. And all of our nurses are intensive care nurses here in Intensive Care At Home. That’s our point of difference. We are sending intensive care nurses into the community.
Other issues that one needs to look at when it comes to home TPN is that bloods might need to be taken once a week, once a fortnight to check electrolytes, potassium, magnesium, calcium, check sugars. There’s a whole range of tests that need to be run all the time, making sure that electrolytes are up to date, that they’re within range, within parameters, that blood sugars are within parameters. Obviously you need to check patient’s weight, constantly making sure they are getting adequate nutrition. That they’re not losing weight. That they’re not gaining too much weight. So there’s all these parameters that someone needs to look at when someone is at home.
In ICU, often patients have TPN 24 hours a day, just as much as they would have nasogastric tube feeds or PEG tubes 24 hours a day. And the same often happens at home. Having said that, some of our clients at home, they don’t necessarily have TPN 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They might have TPN every second day. They might have TPN seven days a week, but just overnight. So it really depends a little bit on a client’s clinical condition and the client’s clinical need.
We have also done TPN for children. So it doesn’t really matter whether you have a family member that’s an adult or a child, we have done both. We can provide TPN at home for both adults and children. We have both pediatric and adult ICU nurses working for us. So we have all the expertise that’s needed for your loved one to go home on TPN.
Next, I should also say that just because you or one of your family members might need TPN doesn’t necessarily exclude them from having some other forms of nutrition. Some of our clients are taking in oral, at least fluids. Sometimes they might be able to eat a little bit here and there. But most of the time they have very minimal, if any oral intake. That is something you obviously need to work out with your gastroenterologist or with your dietician, what is possible for you or for your family member, besides TPN.
If you’re at home, TPN needs to be stored in the fridge. It’s a milky substance and one bag needs to be used within a 24-hour period, otherwise there is the risk of the TPN substance going off and then it can’t be used. It’s very expensive. A TPN bag, I believe costs around $500 to $700. So it’s fairly expensive. But again, especially when we talk about who’s funding TPN, it’s so much more cost effective at providing TPN at home than it is providing TPN in hospital, especially when it comes to ICU. We’re cutting the cost of an ICU bed by half.
But even if you’re not in ICU, you might just be in hospital for TPN, you can’t really measure what we provide in terms of cost. I mean, for someone going home, it’s invaluable and you can’t measure in cost what we do. The peace of mind that we provide for families in intensive care that they can finally go home, it’s not something you can really measure in cost. Imagine if you have the choice between going home from intensive care and staying in intensive care.
Hi José, nice to see you. What is TPN? TPN is total parenteral nutrition. It’s also known as IV nutrition or intravenous nutrition. If someone can’t have oral intake for any condition or if they can’t have a nasogastric tube with feeds, or if they can’t have a PEG tube where they’re getting feeds, TPN is an option. I can’t remember José… I know we’ve spoken a few weeks ago. I can’t remember off the top of my head what you… I think it was your dad’s condition, whether he was a candidate for TPN. Is your dad getting nasogastric tube feeds or PEG tube feeds? And if so, can he tolerate them? Because if he can tolerate them, he’s not a candidate for TPN and he doesn’t need TPN. If he can’t tolerate nasogastric tube feeds, or if he can’t tolerate PEG feeds, then he might be a candidate for TPN. I hope that clarifies José, but let me know if you have any other questions.
I can also get anyone that’s on this live stream on a live phone call if they want to ask any questions. I’ll just quickly give you my number so you can call me on this. You’re saying Jose’, “Dad has PEG tube. He had a stroke and cardiac arrest”. Yes. If he has PEG tube, José, and he can tolerate the feeds, he won’t need TPN. He’s good with that.
Now, if anyone wants to ask any questions live, type them into the chat pad, or you can also call me live on this call, on this live stream. I’ll give you my numbers. If you are in the US, you can call me on 415-915-0090. That is again 415-915-0090. For anyone that’s in the US, you can call me live on this stream and ask any questions. For our viewers in Australia, you can call me on 041-094-2230. That is again for our viewers in Australia and New Zealand, 041-094-2230. And if you are in the UK or in Ireland, you can get me on 0118-324-3018. That is again for our viewers in UK or Ireland, 0118-324-3018.
Yeah. Ready for questions. In the meantime, while I’m waiting for either the phone to ring or for someone to type in the questions into the chat pad. To sum it up, if your loved one is in ICU or in hospitals on TPN, they can absolutely go home with our service Intensive Care At Home. Again, funding should not be an issue because we are saving the hospital 50% of the cost of an ICU bed. We’re helping hospitals to free up ICU beds, the most sought after and most expensive hospital bed. It’s a win-win for everyone. And obviously we’re helping you or your family to improve your quality of life at home rather than staying in hospital or in intensive care. Win-win altogether.
Modema, you’ve got a question. “So this touches on one of my pet ICU peeves.” Just give me a second. Just need to bring up the question again. “Why is the feeding so often the first thing they suggest you stop in end of life decisions?” Great questions, Modema. And that’s also one of my pet peeves. Well, if in end of life, you stop feeds. You’re basically starving a patient. So you’re removing the first thing that I believe is a right for a patient or for anyone to have nutrition. That’s why they’re removing nutrition first. That’s the first thing that’s going.
And also then once the nutrition has gone, then one can start Benzodiazepines such as Midazolam or Versed. Then they can start morphine or fentanyl and “make a patient comfortable” and let them pass away. So when you’re then euthanizing and I hate using the word, but that’s actually what’s happening, a patient in ICU with Midazolam or Versed or morphine or fentanyl, you’re slowing the gut motility down. You don’t need any nutrition because nutrition won’t be digested anyway. It’s incredibly cruel, Mordema. It’s incredibly cruel. Absolutely. It’s very cruel. And it’s something that as I was gaining experience in ICU over the years where I was just not comfortable with doing any longer. I was just not comfortable in participating in this cruelty any longer.
So what other questions are there? And I’ve got about 10 more minutes left. I’ll just give you my numbers again. If you want to contact me, if you’re in the US, you can call me live on 415-915-0090. If you’re in Australia, you can call me live 041-094-2230. And if you’re in the UK, you can call me live on 0118-324-3018.
Now, coming back to today’s topic about home TPN. Again, all possible. There are not many patients who need TPN. But especially in ICU, there’s certainly a percentage of patients that need TPN. There would always be some patients in a hospital that are on TPN. And I argue, up until our service Intensive Care At Home existed, that not many patients were able to go home at all. They would’ve been confined to a hospital or an intensive care bed. But that’s gone out of the window. Contact Intensive Care At Home if you want your loved one to go home on TPN. What other questions do you have, not necessarily related to TPN? I will answer any questions now if you have any questions in relation to your loved one being in intensive care.
Hi Alex. I think I’ve seen you before here as well. Nice to see you again. Hang on. I just need to bring this up. Alex says, “My mother had severe brain damage and is in a coma. She’s not responsive, but when I gave her a kiss and she quickly moved her head towards me and opened eyes, what does that mean?” I would say that it means that your mother can feel that you’re there. That’s a very positive sign. Now, Alex, what I don’t know is, you’re saying your mom had severe brain damage and she’s in a coma. Do you know if that’s a natural coma, Alex? Or is it a coma induced by medications? Because I think to make that distinction is very important. Because if she’s in a coma that’s induced by medications, there’s a very good chance she might wake up once those medications have been removed. But if your mom is opening eyes and she’s moving her head towards you, that’s a sign she’s there. “Had a cardiac arrest for 10 minutes.”
Have they done a CT scan of the brain, Alex? In your first message, you’re saying that severe brain damage and is in a coma. So I assume a CT of the brain has been done or an MRI scan of the brain has been done. And has brain damage been confirmed? Is that what you’re saying? They said she had little brain activity.
It would be good to have a report of the CT brain. And more importantly, Alex, it would be very important for you to find out if she is in a natural coma or if she’s in an induced coma. Because if she is in an induced coma, she’s in a coma potentially because of the medications that she’s getting for the coma. If she’s no longer on any sedatives or opiates and she’s not waking up, there’s a very high chance it’s because of brain damage. But then again, sometimes patients don’t wake up without brain damage if the sedative and opiate drugs have been removed. It takes some time. People after all are critically ill. I hope that makes sense, Alex. But for you and for your own sanity, it is very important to find out if she’s on any sedative or opiate drugs or if she’s off all those drugs and whether she is in a natural coma or induced coma.
Alex is saying, “So I did a Glasgow Coma test and it’s a three. She’s not medicated for the coma, only taking insulin and is on the ventilator.” Okay, great. Now, Alex, I can already tell you if she’s opening eyes and she responds to you, that is not Glasgow Coma Scale of 3. That’s more. It’s at least a 5.
A Glasgow Coma Scale of 3 is if there is no response whatsoever. Now you’ve already told me that your mom has been responding. She moved her head towards you and opened her eyes. Opening eyes is at least a 4 in the Glasgow Coma Scale. So you’re already coming up to a 5 straight away. So a Glasgow Coma Scale of 3 means there is no response whatsoever. And that’s not the case in your mom’s situation. Now you’re saying, “That was before the kiss and also after the kiss.” Fair enough. So what you’re basically saying is she’s a Glasgow Coma Scale of 3 most of the time. But you’ve also now seen that she’s opening her eyes and she’s responding to you when you are talking to her. I think that’s very encouraging. It’s very encouraging.
The other question to me is, we’re still finding at the moment when we’re talking to clients, we’re still finding that many families are still locked out of ICU because of COVID. How often can you see your mom, Alex? Can you see her daily? Are you still locked out? Do you have limited visitation rights? What’s your situation? Because the longer families can spend around their loved ones in intensive care, the higher chances they will wake up and the higher chances they will get out of ICU alive and will recover. But it’s great, Alex, that you are sharing this here and thank you for sharing, because many families lose hope very quickly. And now that you’ve seen that she’s responding to you, that should encourage you to keep pushing on.
And lo and behold, you said earlier, they said she had little brain activity. Yeah, maybe she does. But a lot of patients that come out of an induced coma without brain damage have very little brain activity to begin with, because it takes time to wake up. Waking up after an induced coma is like switching on a light with a dimmer, rather than switching on a light with a switch. It takes time. And now what I believe needs to happen next, Alex, is if she’s not awake yet, they should start to stimulate her. They should start mobilizing her. They should start physical therapy. She’s been in a coma for two months. Does she have a tracheostomy, Alex? Does she have a tracheostomy or does she still have a breathing tube?
And José says, “Don’t give up. The doctors told me the worst scenario and now his GCS is a 10 after three months of having a stroke.” That’s great.
Okay. Yes, she does have a tracheostomy. So that means Alex, they can start mobilizing her. Are they mobilizing her? Because if someone is not waking up, especially after brain damage, they need to start to stimulate someone. And one can only be stimulated by actively doing things with their mobilization, physical therapy or physiotherapy. Do you know if that’s happening? And just to encourage everyone, José said that don’t give up, the doctors told me the worst scenario and now your dad’s GCS is a 10 after three months of having a stroke. That’s fantastic. That is very similar to Alex’s story. I’m sure your dad wasn’t waking up straight away.
Okay. Alex, you’re saying she can only move her hand a little. Okay, fine. If she can only move her hand a little, that already pushes her over Glasgow Coma Scale of 3. A Glasgow Coma Scale of 3 means there is no movement, no response whatsoever. So if she’s moving her hand, that’s a start. She couldn’t eat before and is eating through a tube. Well, again, that’s a good sign. And Alex you’re saying, “You should give her a range of motion exercises.” Absolutely. Physical therapy or physiotherapy is so important for intensive care patients. As you would’ve all seen with your family members, every day of intensive care is deconditioning patients. Every day is critical. If they don’t start physical therapy, if they don’t start mobilization, it’s a waste of time.
For example, the sooner you can start mobilizing someone, the sooner you can start physical therapy, the higher chances people will recover.
Alex, you’re saying, “Her arms are swollen. Not sure if it’s because of the dialysis.” So she’s on dialysis as well. So Alex, a lot of patients in ICU are swollen because they’re not getting mobilized, therefore fluids are accumulating in the tissues. Another reason for swelling is often that albumin is low. And especially if she’s on dialysis, she may need a boost of albumin to get the swelling down. Ask for albumin levels. But swelling is often a byproduct of being immobile and being confined to a bed. You’re saying Alex, “I move her arms always. And she twitches sometimes.” Keep moving her.
Yes, absolutely, José you’re saying, “It could be from not moving.” That is exactly right. That is exactly right. Long-term intensive care patients often have swelling because of (A) their fluids are not moved around because they’re immobile. They’re not having physical therapy. And (B) it’s often because their albumin levels are low and they need an albumin transfusion. Ask for albumin levels. And often their hemoglobin levels are on the lower side as well, because everything is slowed down, including the production of red blood cells.
That’s right. And look at videos on YouTube, on how to give range of motions. Absolutely. You should be doing that Alex and José. And it sounds to me like José, you’re already doing that. Absolutely. There is so much information out there on YouTube. Absolutely. That’s good. I’m glad that you can support each other here to improve your loved one’s situation and your situation as well, of course. So that’s really good. “She’s in a home which has dialysis and everything she needs. I wish I could take care of her myself, but it’s a lot to take care of. Thank you so much.”
Alex, where are you? Are you in the US? Are you in Australia? Are you in Canada? Where are you? If you can share with me where you are, hopefully I can point you in the right direction of what to do next. If you share your location with me. In the US. Whereabouts in the US, East Coast, West Coast? Where are you? Okay. In New York.
Alex, if you send me an email to [email protected], I can give you a contact in New York who might be able to help you take your mom home, if that’s what you want, of course. We have contacts in New York. Send me an email to [email protected], Alex, and then I can hopefully help you from there.
Okay. I need to wrap this up in a couple of minutes, because I need to move along. I will do another live stream next Sunday, 10:30 AM. Sydney, Melbourne Time, which is 8:30 Eastern Standard Time on a Saturday night in the US. 5:30 PM Pacific Time next Saturday, I will do another live stream.
If you like this video, give it a thumbs up. It’s a pleasure, Alex. It’s a pleasure. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates for families in intensive care. Share this video with your friends and families, or anyone that can benefit from the video.
Click the notification bell, comment below your questions or insights you have. Go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of the website. Or if you have any questions, send us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.
Check out our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org.
I also do one to one consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care where I can talk to you directly over the phone, via email or Zoom or Skype, WhatsApp. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly. I participate in family meetings with the doctors as a professional advocate and as a professional representative for you and your family. And if you want medical record review, we do that as well. So there’s a whole range of services we provide for families in intensive care.
Helene, I’m just wrapping up now, but nice to see you again. I’m sure I’ll see you on the next one. José, yes, “How does care at home differ from subacute?”
Well, there’s a big difference there. José, you would have 24-hour care at home. Have a look at our sister site, José, intensivecareathome.com. That’s intensivecareathome.com where we provide home care for predominantly long term intensive care patients. We basically bring the intensive care into the home with intensive care nurses 24 hours a day as a genuine alternative to a long term stay in intensive care. So that’s the difference. I mean, if I could choose between subacute and Intensive Care at Home, I would always choose Intensive Care at Home. So just food for thought there for you, José.
I’m going to wrap this up. I’ll see you again next week at the same time. I want to thank you for your support.
Like this video, share it with your friends and families and I’ll see you again next week. Take care. Thank you.
Now, if you have a loved one in intensive care and you want to go home with our service intensive care at home and if you want to find out how to get funding for our service and how it all works, please contact us on one of the numbers on the top of our website, or send me an email to [email protected]. That’s Patrik, just with a K at the end.
Please also have a look at our case studies because there we highlight more about what we can do for clients, how clients can live at home with ventilation and tracheostomies and you can look at our case studies as well at our service section.
Intensive care at home Case studies
And if you are at home already and you need support for your critically ill loved one at home, and you have insufficient support or insufficient funding, please contact us as well. We can help you with all of that.
And if you are an intensive care nurse or a pediatric intensive care nurse with a minimum of two years, ICU or pediatric ICU experience, and you ideally have a critical care certificate, please contact us as well. Check out our career section on our website. We are currently hiring ICU and pediatric ICU nurses for clients in the Melbourne metropolitan area, Northern suburbs, Sunbury, Bendigo, Mornington Peninsula, Bittern, Patterson Lakes, Frankston area, South Gippsland, Drouin, Warragul, Trida, Trafalgar and Moe as well as Wollongong in New South Wales.
www.intensivecareathome.com/careers
So we are also an NDIS, TAC (Victoria) and DVA (Department of Veteran affairs) approved community service provider in Australia. Also have a look at our range of full service provisions.
Thank you for watching this video and thank you for tuning into this week’s blog.
This is Patrik from Intensive Care at Home, and I’ll see you again next week in another update.