Podcast: Play in new window | Download
MP3
Hi it’s Patrik from www.intensivecareathome.com.au where we help long-term ventilated adults& children with Tracheostomy to improve their Quality of life and where we also help hospitals and Intensive Care Units to save money and resources, whilst providing Quality Care!
In last week’s blog I was talking about “The 10 myths about long-term ventilation with Tracheostomy and Intensive Care”. You can check it out here https://intensivecareathome.com/10-myths-about-long-term-ventilation-with-tracheostomy-and-intensive-care/
In this week’s blog I want to shed light on what I believe is a big dilemma and also a big opportunity when it comes to long-term ventilation for adults and children with Tracheostomy.
“We can’t always cure long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy, but we can always care for our Clients’ Quality of Life and/or their Quality of-end-of-Life”.
I do believe that Intensive Care Units are designed and equipped to look after acutely unwell Patients. The longer a Patient stays in Intensive Care, especially if they are ventilated with a Tracheostomy, the more their Quality of Life and/or their Quality of-end-of-life is suffering or non-existent. I believe that Intensive Care therefore is not only an inhibiting but also a very expensive environment to be in!
A genuine alternative therefore is to look at taking long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy out of Intensive Care into a home care environment that offers the right support structures and also has people with the right mindset to make a smooth transition possible.
As a by-product you also have an empty Intensive Care bed that can be used for a Patient who is acutely unwell and in real need of an ICU bed.
Furthermore, you’ll have a nursing and medical workforce who probably gets more excited and is more engaged when looking after more acutely unwell Patients.
For long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy it means that they finally get to go into their home environment where they and their Families can relax and where they can enjoy a much better Quality of life and/or Quality of-end-of-life.
The care factor in a home environment with designated Intensive Home Care nursing services not only enhances our Clients’ Quality of Life and/or Quality of-end-of-life, it also puts a very different spin on their psychological condition by taking them out of a depressing Intensive Care environment!
Long- term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy are able to be reintegrated back to a much more normal life compared to a long-term stay in Intensive Care to the point where they report high satisfaction and engagement levels in their lives.
Again, this is not a theoretical care model, it is a massively successful model in many European countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the model has also been successful in parts of the USA. In those countries there are also very few bed blocks in Intensive Care, as it’s common for long-term ventilated Adults& Children to go home due to the availability of specialised Intensive Home Care Nursing services.
What do you think? Do you believe that the care factor at Home is greater than in Intensive Care? Leave your comments on the blog here.
If you are a health professional in Intensive Care and you know a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy and their Family who would like to improve their Quality of Life and/or their Quality of end of Life in their own home rather than in Intensive Care- and if your organisation needs to free up your ICU beds or if you simply have any questions, give us a call on 03-9939 7456 or simply reply to this email.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com.au and I’ll see you again in another update next week.