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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 by improving their Quality of life and where we also provide tailor made solutions to hospitals and Intensive Care Units to save money and resources, whilst providing Quality Care!
In the last blog I talked about
WHAT IS LONG TERM HOME VENTILATION?
You can check out last week here.
In this week’s blog I want to answer another question that we get quite frequently
Can you live on a ventilator and tracheostomy with a good quality of life?
More and more Patients (adults and children) survive complicated critical illnesses and hence lengthy stays in intensive care on mechanical ventilation with tracheostomy.
Some of those adults and children can be successfully weaned off ventilation and tracheostomy and others can’t.
For some adults and children, mechanical ventilation and tracheostomies are simply a bridge to get them better, weaned off both devices and then they move on to their path of recovery without life support.
For others, mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy are an issue they need to deal with long term and beyond intensive care or ICU.
If that’s the case the question inevitably arises if one can live on a ventilator and tracheostomy with a good quality of life?
The answer to it is quite simple and we know from our clients that it’s a clear yes.
Picture yourself or your loved one in intensive care (ICU) or in LTAC (long-term acute care for our US readers and clients) with a ventilator and tracheostomy and you or your loved one are unable to be weaned off ventilation or it may take much longer than anticipated.
You or your loved one won’t have quality of life in an institution such as a hospital intensive care unit or LTAC but you can have a good quality of life at home with 24/7 professional and highly skilled intensive care nurses coming to your home. Thise ICU/PICU nurses are familiar with ventilation and tracheostomy as well as them being familiar with the unique and special needs of clients at home on ventilation with tracheostomies.
This unique skillset of having the combination of both
- Intensive care nursing skills, i.e. ventilation and tracheostomy skills and years of training and exposure to patients on life support
- Having the sensitivity of working in a unique and highly sensitive home care environment
Enables our ventilated and tracheostomised clients to live a good quality of life at home instead of ICU/PICU.
Most of our clients live an active social life with our pediatric clients going to school on a daily basis. For our adult clients the focus is more on being surrounded by their loved ones and spending time with their families at home rather than “living” in intensive care or LTAC for an indefinite and prolonged period.
Mechanical ventilation and tracheostomies require the specialist skills and expertise of intensive care nurses with a minimum of two years ICU experience and ideally with a post-graduate critical care certificate.
Our intensive care nurses have on average of 8 years hospital ICU/PICU experience and they also have the sensitivity and social skills to operate in a highly sensitive home care environment. This makes a service like intensive care at home possible.
In fact we are employing hundreds of years of ICU/PICU experience in our service and therefore we are able to leverage this wealth of skills, knowledge, professionalism and expertise in the community to the benefits of our clients!
By continuing the specialist treatment and therapy at home when it comes to mechanical ventilation with tracheostomy it also improves the quality of life for our clients families at home.
If your loved one is stuck in intensive care or LTAC for months or sometimes even years because of ventilation dependency and tracheostomy, you are stuck in the environment too and you and your family have most likely put your life on hold.
You may not be able to work, produce an income and you may not be able to look after significant others such as your spouse, your children, parents etc…
The consequences of having a loved one on a ventilator with tracheostomy and therefore on life support are massive especially if you are stuck in ICU.
The good news is that there is a way forward and the suffering can stop!
Take your loved one out of intensive care and improve their quality of life at home by having highly skilled and professional intensive care nurses come to you 24/7.
We also liaise with the doctors directly 24/7 who are overseeing the medical treatment plan.
And what about funding?
The cost of an intensive care bed is $5,000- $6,000 per 24 hour bed day. The cost to be in your own home environment is about 50% or less than that.
Therefore health care funding agencies are funding intensive care at home services because it’s a win-win situation for everyone!
You and your loved one can go home improving your quality of life, the ICU/PICU can empty one of their in-demand and highly sought-after ICU/PICU bed and the funding bodies save 50% or more of the cost!
Again, a win-win situation!
Here is a break-down in more detail about our services and also some case studies
Intensive care at home services
https://intensivecareathome.com/services
Case studies
https://intensivecareathome.com/case-studies/
If you want to find out how we can help you to get your loved one out of Intensive Care including palliative care or Long-term acute care (also nursing home) or if you find that you have insufficient support for your loved one at home on a ventilator, if you want to know how to get funding for our service or if you have any questions please send me an email to [email protected] or call on one of the numbers below.
Australia/New Zealand +61 41 094 2230
USA/Canada +1 415-915-0090
UK/Ireland +44 118 324 3018
Also, check out our careers section here
www.intensivecareathome.com/careers
We are currently hiring ICU/PICU nurses for clients in the Melbourne metropolitan area, northern suburbs, Mornington Peninsula and in South Gippsland/Victoria.
We are 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 here
https://intensivecareathome.com/services
We have also been part of the Royal Melbourne health accelerator program for innovative health care companies last year!
https://www.thermh.org.au/news/innovation-funding-announced-melbourne-health-accelerator
Thank you for tuning into this week’s blog.
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME and I see you again next week in another update!