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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. We also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units whilst providing quality care for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies, medically complex patients at home, including Home TPN (total parenteral nutrition), Home IV potassium infusions, Home intravenous infusions, Home BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure), Home CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), and home tracheostomy care for adults and children that are not ventilated. We also provide IV antibiotics at home. We provide port management, central line management, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line management, as well as Hickman’s line management. We also provide palliative care services at home. In essence, we are providing a genuine alternative to a long term stay in intensive care.

So, today I want to answer the question from Sonia who contacted me. I spoke to Sonia on the phone and Sonia said, “Hey, my dad’s in hospital. He is in palliative care after cancer. They want to send him home with palliative care services, but he can no longer eat and drink, and we want to give him IV fluids. Is this something that Intensive Care at Home can do?” Absolutely, we can, that is part of our palliative care service.

If you know someone wants to be discharged from hospital or hospital can no longer offer treatment, palliative care can be offered at home, of course, and it’s a much better environment at home, of course. We have done many palliative care situations at home, once again, focusing on quality of end-of-life at home rather than in a hospital.

What do we need for it? We do need a script from a medical practitioner for IV fluids. We do need an IV cannula, ideally, a PICC line. Sometimes in those situations, we have also commenced TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), it’s basically intravenous nutrition for patients that can no longer eat and drink, and always under the guidance, of course, of a doctor who can prescribe TPN or IV fluids. Sometimes that can come from even after-hours GP (General Practitioner). There’s also a great organization now, “My Emergency Doctor”. I can only recommend them, they’re pretty good in managing situations at home, including palliative care.

So, that is really my tip for today for anyone that is in a situation like that and is looking for alternatives at home. This is certainly something that is right up our alley, which in this case includes palliative care.

So, if you need help at home, if you’re in a hospital and you want to go home, if you’re in intensive care and you want to go home, if you’re a family having a loved one in intensive care long- term or in a palliative care situation, please reach out to us. You will find us at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected]

With intensivecareathome.com, we are currently operating all around Australia and in all major capital cities, and regional and rural areas. We are a NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved service provider, TAC (Transport Accident Commission) in Victoria, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme) in Queensland, iCare in New South Wales, and DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) all around Australia. We are also having received funding through public hospitals, departments of health, as well as private health funds.

We are also providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination. We are also providing nursing assessments for NDIS funding.  Like I said, if you have a family member in a similar situation, we would love to hear from you as well.

If you are at home already and you have insufficient support, maybe you have support workers instead of intensive care nurses, there is a big difference there, and it’s also really dangerous if you have support workers and it’s not evidence-based most of the time. We would love to hear from you and help you to take your funding to the next level in your journey and have Intensive Care at Home, especially when it comes to long-term ventilation, tracheostomy, BIPAP, CPAP, and so forth.

Again, if you need Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination and if you don’t know how to get on to the NDIS, please reach out to us as well. Or if you feel like your current NDIS Support Coordinator is not doing that job by not getting you nursing care, we want to hear from you as well because we can help you with the advocacy. We have done it many, many times successfully.

Also, there has been a court case recently where the NDIS was trying to challenge not to pay for nursing care for their participants and it has been knocked back not only by the NDIS Charter, but it has also been knocked back by the Federal Court. So, don’t let anyone tell you that the NDIS isn’t funding nursing care, it’s all evidence based.

If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change, we want to hear from you as well. If you have worked for a minimum of two years in critical care ICU or ED or pediatric ICU or neonatal ICU, and you ideally have completed a postgraduate critical care qualification, we want to hear from you. We are currently having jobs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga on the New South Wales, Victorian border in Bendigo, and in Country Victoria, as well as in Warragul in Country Victoria. We absolutely want to hear from you.

Please also note that if you are interested in working for us, we are not an agency. We are a service provider but has a tailor-made solution for our clients and that means we’re really looking for competent staff and confident staff that want to work with our clients and want to build relationships with our clients. This includes working regular shifts with them. Don’t come to us if you’re wanting agency work and come and go, that isn’t going to work for us and for our clients. Certainly, our clients don’t want people coming and going. We’re looking for building stable teams for our clients on a regular basis. Therefore, we want people to have a real commitment to our clients and to us as an organization, to do the work that we are set out to do.

If you are an intensive care specialist, we are currently expanding our medical team as well.

If you are an intensive care specialist and you have bed blocks in your ICU, which I know you have, then I encourage you to reach out to us as well. We can help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU and ED by taking your patients home, which also includes palliative care for some patients at home.

Talking about ED and emergency department, we are also sending our critical care nurses into the home of people and into residential aged care to keep them out of ED.  So, we’re also providing an ED bypass service if you are interested in that.

If you’re a hospital executive watching this, we also want to hear from you because, once again, we can help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU, ED, and respiratory wards.

If you’re a NDIS Support Coordinator and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, or if you’re looking for other NDIS Specialist Support Coordinators or NDIS nursing assessments, we want to hear from you as well.

Once again, please contact us on one of the numbers on the top of our website at intensivecareathome.com or send us an email to [email protected].

If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families with Intensive Care at Home and intensive care. Click the like button, click the notification bell, comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have, and share the video with your friends and families.

Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.