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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 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. We have done so successfully for the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, their in-touch program, saving $2,000 per ED bypass service. Basically, if we send a critical care nurse into the home of a client or into a residential aged care, we’re saving the healthcare system $2,000 by using our critical care nurses, which cost a fraction of that.
In this week’s blog, I want to read out an email from a potential client that we have, and I want to read out the email from Ruth who says,
“Hi Patrik,
My 87-year-old brother lives in Rockhampton in Central Queensland. I’m wondering if you treat patients in this area. He has a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube and needs enteral feeding because of the progression of his disease. He’s unable to feed himself as he has been doing this for the past two years. He has a leaking heart valve, which is controlled by medication and also has some lung issues.
Home care providers in Rockhampton do not provide nurses carers to do any enteral feeding. He was discharged from hospital to a situation where he lives alone, a family member sleeping there at night who was very unwell at the time and unable to care for him. No duty of care whatsoever from the hospitals.
Home care providers didn’t have any more assistance to give him. I was told it was the family’s responsibility to search for respite care, and none seems to be available and also to put his name down for aged care homes, long waiting lists, and they can’t look after PEG tubes in Rockhampton. Once again, no duty of care.
ADA (Aged and Disability Advocates) Australia found Intensive Care at Home and passed it on to me. I would be extremely grateful if you could advise me or if you’re able to care for my brother in his home in Rockhampton. I have exhausted all other possibilities.
From, Ruth.”
Ruth, I have spoken to ADA Australia already, and I have responded to your email, of course, but I think it’s also important that our audience understands what we do and how we do it.
It’s a really sad state of affairs if other providers can’t provide enteral feeding at home for a PEG tube or can’t provide general nursing care for your brother, who looks like he’s in a very vulnerable position.
I actually spoke to ADA Australia, this week, and they were telling me that apparently there are no providers whatsoever in Rockhampton that can provide care to a patient with a PEG tube and that’s unbelievable that it’s not even an intensive care nursing skill. It should be a general registered nursing skill but it’s sad that nobody can provide that.
We can, absolutely, we can. We are providing services all around the East Coast, really all over the country. For us, it comes down to hiring staff, which we can certainly do and looking after a PEG tube, that’s part of our nursing skills, of course. We’re looking after clients on ventilation with tracheostomy, definitely PEG tube is part of our skill set.
Obviously, if he needs general nursing care to stay at home predictably, that is also part of our skill set. We can keep ventilated clients at home predictably. We can certainly keep your brother at home predictably. No need for your family to spend nights at home if they don’t have the health or the time to do that.
So, it’s just important for anyone who’s watching my videos here to understand our skill set. Also, that location really isn’t an issue. We’ve always found staff for any location that we’ve been asked to provide services for. We have provided some fly-in, fly-out rosters for country in New South Wales, for example, because you can’t get critical care nurses in certain areas. So, then you have to provide a fly-in, fly-out roster. But that is all possible, even in Rockhampton. But I believe we will find staff in Rockhampton on a local level. There shouldn’t be an issue.
So, I hope that answers your question., Ruth. I encourage you to reach out to me over the phone. My number is 041-094-2230, or you just call one of the numbers on the top of our website at intensivecareathome.com. That’s our website.
Now with Intensive Care at Home, we’re currently operating all around Australia in all major capital cities as well as in all regional and rural areas. We are in NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved service provider all around Australia, we are TAC (Transport Accident Commission) and WorkSafe approved in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme in Queensland), DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) all around the country. Our clients and, we as a provider, have received funding through public hospitals, private health funds, as well as departments of health.
We are the only service provider in Australia in 2024 that has achieved third-party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing. No other provider has created this much intellectual property for Intensive Care at Home nursing than Intensive Care at Home. We are therefore employing hundreds of years of intensive care nursing experience in the community combined. Once again, no other provider brings that level of expertise into the community than we do.
If you’re at home already and you realize that you’re on a ventilator, tracheostomy, BIPAP, CPAP, Home TPN, whatever the case may be, and you realize that your current setup is not working, that your current team is not having the skills and expertise to keep you at home predictably, and you feel unsafe, and you’re going back to ICU all the time or you have medical emergency that really makes you worried where your providers might call an ambulance, that’s when you need to reach out to us because with our Intensive Care at Home nursing experience and with our critical care nurses, you will be safe at home and we keep our clients at home predictably.
If you’re worried about not having adequate funding levels, please reach out to us. We would not be in business if we didn’t know how to advocate for our clients and not get the appropriate funding.
That’s also why we’re 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 in the written version of this blog to an interview that I’ve done with Amanda a while ago. We’re also providing TAC case management and WorkSafe case management in Victoria.
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 and 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 with a legal nurse consulting background.
If you’re 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, in Albury, Wodonga, in Bendigo in Victoria, as well as in Warragul in Victoria, and in Geelong 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 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 so 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 are looking for agency work where you can come and go, this is probably not the right fit for you on a long-term basis because our clients want regular and the same staff over and over again. So, it’s all about building those critical relationships with our clients and we want to build relationships with you as well, of course, so that it remains a win-win situation.
If you are an intensive care specialist or an ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We are currently expanding our medical team as well. We can also help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU and in ED for your long-term patients or for your regular readmitting patients with our critical care nurses at home. We’re here to help you take the 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.
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 as well. We can help you there privately.
Once again, our website is intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website will simply 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 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 from this video, share this video with your friends and families.
I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on a show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to my 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.