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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 clients at home, adults and children at home, which includes BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), 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, and 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 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 of the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, their in-touch program.

So, today I actually want to talk about a recent case study of ours because sometimes we do get asked, can we look after nasogastric tubes at home? I want to, today, highlight a recent client of ours.

So, last year in 2023, in May, we were approached by a funding body in Victoria, in Australia, whether we could take a client home with a nasogastric tube. The client is a young man who was in a car accident, and he had a traumatic brain injury. He was in ICU for a long time, and he had a tracheostomy, tracheostomy got removed.

Initially, they were planning for a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube for him because he was not able to swallow. But because his gastrointestinal tract had many complications, he could no longer tolerate a PEG tube, he could no longer have a PEG tube, and he ended up with a nasogastric tube.

So, the question then was, are there any providers that can look after nasogastric tube at home? Given the high acuity that we are used to looking after at home, I argue, we are looking after the highest acuity of clients in the community in Australia. Obviously, we were selected as a service provider to take this young man home with the nasogastric tube, with a view of having the nasogastric tube removed as he was improving with his nutrition, as he was getting speech therapy, swallowing assessments, swallowing training, as he was increasing his oral intake. Lo and behold, as time went on, after about 15 months, the nasogastric tube was able to be taken out. He had no hospital admissions while we were looking after him. That’s what we do with Intensive Care at Home, we keep our clients at home predictably.

For someone with a nasogastric tube at home, that’s on constant nasogastric tube feeds and fluids, water intake, needs a nurse 24 hours a day to check the position of the nasogastric tube to make sure that when feeds or fluids are connected, that the nasogastric tube is in the right position because otherwise, patient could end up with fluids or with feeds in the lungs instead of in the stomach, which could be deadly.

So, that was a huge success for us and for the client to get him home early and manage the nasogastric tube at home with 24-hour nursing care with our service. All of our nurses are critical care trained, have a minimum of two years ICU or pediatric ICU or emergency department experience. Most of them, probably around 75%, have a postgraduate critical care and nursing qualification.

We are employing hundreds of years of intensive care and critical care nursing experience combined, which I believe is unmatched in Australia in 2024. We are also the only service in Australia that actually has achieved third party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing services. There’s no other service in 2024 that has gone through that rigorous accreditation, through those quality standards or the quality standards that we are maintaining, and our services are evidence-based as well. So, have a look at the Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines and see our quality standards there.

Coming back to our client, so he’s now been discharged from our service because he no longer needed the nasogastric tube. He can now eat and drink independently, which is great, great success. He’s now under the care of support workers and the family, which is sufficient for someone who’s not ventilated, who has a traumatic brain injury, and now can eat and drink again.

But I just thought I needed to highlight this case study so that you can see what we can do for your clients. If you’re a funding body watching this, if you’re a hospital watching this, but also if you’re a family watching this, and you’re wondering, how can I get my loved one home from hospital with a nasogastric tube? Well, Intensive Care at Home is the answer to that, and we can help you.

So, with Intensive Care at Home, currently we are operating all around Australia, in all major capital cities and in all regional and rural areas. We are a NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) accredited Intensive Care at Home nursing service. We are TAC (Transport Accident Commission) approved in Victoria, WorkSafe approved in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme) in Queensland. We are also a DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) approved service provider all around Australia. Our clients have received funding through public hospitals, private health funds as well as departments of health.

We are employing hundreds of years of intensive care nursing experience combined in the community. Once again, we’re bringing a high level of skill into the community that is unmatched by other providers.

We’re also providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination which is critical for most NDIS participants in those complex situations. We’re also providing TAC case management.

Now, if you’re at home already in a similar situation where you don’t have enough support, you’re at home, ventilation, tracheostomy, maybe PEG tube, maybe nasogastric tube, or your family member is at home and you realize that the level of support you are receiving is not working, we are here to help you. We have turned many situations around where clients have been at home already, but they didn’t get the support they knew they needed, they didn’t really know where to seek help, they realized they were going back to hospital all the time, their quality of life was suffering, and we have turned many situations like that around including turning the funding situation around. We wouldn’t be in business if we didn’t know how to get funding for critical care nurses at home, for our clients and their families.

What is also important to know is we keep our clients at home predictably. We see clients bouncing back to hospital or ICU all the time if they don’t have the right providers, if they don’t have the critical care at home that knows what they’re doing to keep our clients at home predictably, 24 hours a day.

If you’re a NDIS support coordinator watching this and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, please reach out to us as well. If you’re looking for funding for more nursing care, I also encourage you to reach out to us. We can help you with the advocacy and we also provide specialist NDIS nursing assessments.

If you are a critical care nurse looking for a career change, we’re currently offering jobs for critical care nurses in the home in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga, in Bendigo in Victoria, as well as in Warragul in Victoria. 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 will be delighted hearing from you.

Because we are offering a tailor-made solution for our clients, which includes regular staff, our clients want to have the same staff coming over and over again because they are very vulnerable and it’s all about building those critical relationships and having regular and stable teams. So, if you’re looking for agency work where you can come and go, this may not be the right fit for you because we are looking to engage with you on a long-term basis and our clients want to engage with you on a long-term basis. So, it’s all about building those critical relationships long-term so that it remains a win-win situation for everyone.

If you are an intensive care specialist or ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We are currently expanding our medical team.

We can help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU, ED and for long-term patients in particular, or for patients that are coming back over and over again. We are here to help you take your pressure off your ICU and ED beds, and in most cases, you won’t even pay for it.

If you’re a hospital executive watching this and you have bed blocks in your ICU, 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 want to hear from you. We can help you there privately.

All of that you get at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to info@intensivecareathome.com.

If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families with Intensive Care at Home and for families in 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.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show and you will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel, or if you are a subscriber to our email newsletter at intensivecareathome.com.

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.