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“Can my mom with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and one lung get Intensive Care at Home instead of hospice?”

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com, where we provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies, and where we also provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated patients on BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) without tracheostomy, where we provide tracheostomy care without ventilation, cough assist management at home, ventilation weaning management at home, Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), home IV potassium, home IV magnesium infusion, central line, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line, Hickman’s line, port management at home, as well as PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy), PEJ (Percutaneous Endoscopic Jejunostomy) tube, nasogastric tube, nasojejunostomy tube management at home, as well as palliative care at home.

Now, and if you like my videos, hit the subscribe button and the notification bell on my YouTube channel now so that you don’t miss out on life-saving critical care tips.

So today I have an email from Cassandra who says:

“Hi Patrik,

My mom just went into ICU and was intubated because her carbon dioxide levels were extremely high. She’s had COPD for a while now and has been back and forth to the hospital for it. She was intubated for 4 days and she was doing well. They decided to put her in hospice, and she’s still doing okay.

I’m worried that there’s something else I can do to help her but I have no idea what that is. She has only one lung and had the other one removed 15 years ago because she had lung cancer. She struggles to breathe now, when she’s in hospice, she’s just sitting around.

I want to know what to do, if there’s anything I can do for her besides letting her sit and wait to get worse. Is this going to take her life eventually, or is there something I can do for her?

I’m thinking about moving her into my home with Intensive Care at Home, (and that could also include home hospice if we believe the best way forward is letting her pass). But I really want her to be home with me and my kids.

I really need advice on what to do, Patrik. Please help.

From, Cassandra.”

So Cassandra, I’m so glad you’re reaching out. I can feel your heart is in this message and I want you to know that you’re asking the exact right questions at exactly the right time.

Your mom doesn’t have to “just wait” and get worse. First, let me be very direct with you: hospice is definitely not your only option, and you absolutely do not have to just sit back and watch your mom decline if you don’t want to. There are genuine alternatives that most hospitals and ICU staff simply don’t know about or don’t think to mention.

Your instinct to bring your mom home and create a better quality of life for her with your kids around is not only loving, it’s actually medically feasible and potentially life-extending.

So the question is, why was your mom put in hospice in the first place? Here’s what concerns me greatly: your mom was intubated for 4 days because of high carbon dioxide for CO2 or carbon dioxide retention. She did very well on the ventilator, and then they moved her to hospice. That tells me the hospital team believes she can’t be managed outside of an ICU setting, or they think she’ll need ongoing ventilation support that they believe can’t be provided at home.

But here’s what they probably don’t know: we successfully manage patients just like your mom -including patients with severe COPD, single lung and chronic respiratory failure – at home with mechanical home ventilation and intensive care nursing support 24/7.

Mechanical home ventilation: The game changer for COPD patients. Your mom’s main issue is CO2 retention, which is extremely common in advanced COPD, especially when you only have one lung doing all the work. The good news? This is exactly what non-invasive home mechanical ventilation were designed for, or if your mom needs a tracheostomy, that’s also what the evidence-based Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines were designed for.

So, according to our evidence-based Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines that you can find at intensivecareathome.com, patients with chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure or high CO2 levels from COPD can be successfully managed at home with BIPAP or non-invasive ventilation to reduce the work of breathing, or they can be managed 24/7 with BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) or non-invasive mechanical ventilation with a tracheostomy because we provide evidence-based 24 hour Intensive Care at Home nursing support to monitor your mom’s breathing, oxygen levels, comfort, and provide the intensive care nursing care she needs in a situation like that. Because we also know how to properly set up equipment including backup ventilators, oxygen systems, and emergency protocols, and family training and support so you feel confident and empowered to keep your mom at home whilst we are there, 24 hours a day, to make sure your mom does not need to go back to intensive care.

This is not experimental, it’s evidence-based medicine and nursing that’s been proven in multiple studies to:

• Reduce ICU and hospital readmissions,
• Improve quality of life, and in some instances, quality of end of life,
• Extend survival in COPD patients and,
• Keep families together at home.

Because Intensive Care at Home is a genuine and proven option. Cassandra, if the hospital or ICU staff don’t know about Intensive Care at Home, please let them know that this is a genuine, proven, and evidence-based option for your mom. Because we have plenty of case studies of patients with similar conditions with your mom and single lungs living at home, evidence-based guidelines, evidence-based policies and procedures for mechanical home ventilation, proven model of care that’s been refined over years of clinical experience, and also, 24-hour critical care nursing that rivals or exceeds what’s available in many ICU settings because you get the staff that you know, like, and trust.

Also, we are the only provider in 2025 in Australia that has actually third party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing. No other provider has the knowledge, the insights, the intellectual property that we have built over many years. No other provider is employing hundreds of years of critical care nursing combined, so our workforce, our team, brings all this expertise into the home. No other provider can match that.

Also, here’s something else that ICU teams might not realize: Intensive Care at Home actually cuts the cost of an ICU bed by 50% or more. That means insurance companies and funding bodies have a financial interest in approving homecare, and all of those insurance companies, doesn’t matter who it is, often cover Intensive Care at Home because there’s a financial incentive.

The cost savings are so significant that funding approval is often easier than families expect. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s too expensive or insurance won’t cover it. We have been navigating funding approvals every single day since we first started. We wouldn’t exist otherwise if the funding wasn’t there, and we know how to make it work.

So, what you can do right now? here’s my advice for immediate next steps:

1. Request a care conference with your mom’s ICU team, respiratory physician, and hospice team. Tell them you want to explore alternatives to hospice, specifically Intensive Care at Home, with our evidence-based Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines, with 24-hour intensive care nursing support.
2. Don’t wait to call me. Call me on one of the numbers on the top of our website at intensivecareathome.com, because we can

• Review your mom’s medical records,
• Speak directly with the ICU team,
• Create a customized care plan,
• Handle all the equipment, nursing and logistics,
• Navigate insurance and funding issues, and approvals.

3. Share our resources with your mom’s ICU team:

• Our website at intensivecareathome.com,
• The Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines that are evidence-based,
• Our case studies and other evidence, and obviously that we are third party accredited.

4. Never accept “no” for an answer without exploring options. Many times families are told “there’s nothing more we can do” simply because the hospital team doesn’t know about home intensive care options.

Your vision and our vision is becoming a reality, because Cassandra, you said you’re thinking about moving your mom into your house so she can be with your kids. That’s just not a dream — that’s exactly what we help families do every single day.

Imagine your mom breathing more comfortably with proper ventilation support, surrounded by family instead of hospital walls, playing with your kids, sharing stories, making memories, having her dignity, comfort and quality of life prioritized, receiving ICU-level nursing care in the comfort of your own home. This is all possible. This is what we do all day every day, and I’m very excited to see how we can help you, help your mom to leave an institutionalized environment, going home into a family environment, because it’s possible, and this is what we do.

Now, let’s also address the elephant in the room. Will COPD eventually take her life? COPD is a progressive disease, especially with one lung. But the critical difference is how much time your mom has and what quality of life she experiences during that time can be dramatically improved with proper respiratory support and Intensive Care at Home.

Many patients we’ve cared for have lived months or even years longer than predicted, with much better quality of life, simply because they had proper ventilation support and expert nursing care at home. Even if your mom’s time is limited, wouldn’t you rather have her spend that time at home with you and your kids, comfortable and supported, rather than in a hospice facility just “waiting”?

Cassandra, take action now! Your mom is still doing okay, that means you have a window of opportunity. Don’t wait until she declines further. Reach out to us at intensivecareathome.com today. We’ll show you exactly what’s possible.

You, and many families watching this, are not alone in this. We had to give your mom the care, comfort, and quality of life she deserves—at home, with family, where she belongs.

We also give the ICU bed back to the ICU that can be used for other patients that are in need of acute critical care. Don’t let anyone tell you hospice is your only option. Intensive Care at Home, with our evidence-based Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines, with our third party accredited policies and procedures, and with our intensive care nursing staff that we employ, that bring hundreds of years of critical care nursing experience into the community, it’s a precious opportunity for you not to be missed to have your mom at home with your children.

Now, with Intensive Care at Home, we are currently sending our ICU and critical care nurses into the home, 24 hours a day. We are providing the following:

• Home care services for ventilated adults & children with tracheostomies  with critical care nurses 24 hours a day
• Genuine alternative to a long-term stay in intensive care or at long-term acute care
• Tracheostomy care for clients without ventilation
• Home care services for patients on non-invasive ventilation such as Home BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), Home CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure)
• Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), which is also known as IV nutrition
• Home IV potassium and home IV magnesium infusions, IV fluids, and IV antibiotics
• Providing central line management, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line management, Hickman’s line management, as well as port management at home.
• Providing nasogastric tube  and PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube management at home
• Use cough assist machines for our clients for airway clearance at home
• Palliative care services at home
• Ventilator weaning at home

We’re also sending our critical care nurses into the home for emergency department bypass services. We have done so successfully as part of the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, their in-touch program, saving approximately $2,000 per patient that we keep at home, instead of them going to an emergency department.

That also means, we’re also in a position to cut the cost of an intensive care bed by around 50%. An intensive care bed costs between $5,000 to $6,000 per bed day. Our services costs between $2,500 to $3,000 per bed day, and we’re freeing up the most sought-after bed in the hospital, which is the ICU bed. Most importantly, we’re improving the quality of life for patients and their families, which is a win-win situation for all stakeholders. Of course, quality of life is much improved surrounded by families and by a team of dedicated intensive care nurses in the home care setting instead of in an intensive care unit.

With Intensive Care at Home, we are currently operating all around Australia in all major capital cities as well as in all regional and rural areas. We work with NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) clients all around Australia, TAC (Transport Accident Commission) and WorkSafe in Victoria, Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) all around Australia. Our clients and we, as a service provider, have also received funding through public hospitals, private health funds, as well as Departments of Health.

We are having policies and procedures for Intensive Care at Home nursing and we’ve built all the intellectual property for Intensive Care at Home since 2012. No other provider in Australia has created more intellectual property when it comes to Intensive Care at Home nursing than we have. This puts us in a position to employ hundreds of years of critical care nursing experience combined in the community. No other service provider in 2025 employs a higher skill level in the community than we do, which enables us to look after the highest acuity adults and children in the community in Australia safely.

If you’re at home already and you’re watching this, or you’re stuck in an ICU long-term, or if you’re going to the hospital and ED all the time, and you realize that you don’t have the right level of support at home, or if you are stuck in an ICU, I’ll give you a real-world example today, how we can help you.

One of our first clients when we first got started in 2012 was a client who was at home initially on a ventilator with a tracheostomy with a support worker model 24/7. Of course, support workers are not equipped to look after a client at home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. That is dangerous and it’s simply negligent. Having support workers looking after a client at home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy is like flying the airplane with a cabin crew instead of the pilot. Because anyone on a ventilator with a tracheostomy is at very high risk of medical emergencies 24/7, or even at high risk of dying if they don’t have a team of dedicated critical care nurses looking after them 24/7 at home. This is actually evidence-based and is documented in our Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines that you can find on our website at intensivecareathome.com.

Think about it, in an intensive care unit in a hospital, you wouldn’t have support workers looking after your critically ill loved one or after any critically ill patient on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. So, why would anyone in their right mind do that in the home care environment in the community?

So, this client at the time found out about us eventually, and the ICU that he was basically living in also knew about us and eventually reached out to us. We were proving our concept with this client very fast. When we worked with this particular client, we sent him critical care nurses, 24 hours a day. He never ever went back into ICU ever again, as long as we were working with this client.

We can do the same for you if you’re not safe at home and help you with keeping you at home predictably. Otherwise, we would not be in business. Again, the same is applicable for those stuck in an ICU, similar to this case study that I’ve just given you, or if you’re going back to ED all the time, please reach out to us. We can help you with taking you through the right steps, including how to get funding with different funding bodies.

This is also why we are providing NDIS Support Coordination. We have a team of NDIS Support Coordinators, and they have a wealth of knowledge. I’ve done an interview with Amanda Riches (one of our NDIS support coordinators, and I’ll put a link to an interview with Amanda in the written version of this blog. We’re also providing TAC case management and WorkSafe case management in Victoria with Lucy McCotter.

If you’re an NDIS support coordinator or a case manager from another organization watching this, and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, please reach out to us as well. If you need more evidence for nursing care, we are also writing NDIS nursing assessments with legal nurse critical care consulting nurses.

If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change and you want to join a very progressive, dynamic, and high performing team of critical care nurses in the community, we’re employing hundreds of years of critical care nursing experience combined. You can join this high performing team if you are a critical care nurse.

If you are looking for a career change as a critical care nurse, we’re currently hiring for jobs for critical care nurses in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga, in Bendigo, in Geelong, in Warragul in Victoria. If you have worked in critical care nursing for a minimum of 2 years pediatric ICU, ED, and you have already completed a postgraduate critical care nursing qualification, we will be delighted hearing from you.

I do have a disclaimer though, because we are offering a tailor-made solution for our clients, which includes regular staff, our clients also do want the same staff coming over and over again because they are so vulnerable and so special. That’s why we need regular staff. So, if you’re looking for agency work, where you can come and go, this will not be the right fit for you. We are looking for consistency and our clients are looking for consistency. So please, only apply with us if you can give us regular and consistent availabilities for shifts, and you’re really keen on building solid relationships with us and with our clients.

If you’re an intensive care specialist or an ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We’re currently expanding our medical team as well. We can also help you eliminate your bed blocks in your ICU and in your ED for your long-term patients, or for your regularly readmitting patients with our critical care nursing team at home. We’re here to help you take the pressure off your ICU and ED beds. In most cases, you won’t even pay for it. Even if you do pay for it, it is so much more cost-effective than what you’re paying for in ICU and ED, and you get the same level of care.

If you’re a hospital executive watching this and you have bed blocks in your ICU, ED, and respiratory wards, or for home TPN, please reach out to us as well. We can help you eliminate your bed blocks very fast.

If you’re in the U.S. and 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 with one-on-one consulting and with hiring nurses privately.

Once again, our website is intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website, or 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 intensive care. Click the like button, click the notification bell, share this video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have from this video.

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.