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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. And where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units whilst providing quality care for long-term, ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies and medically complex patients at home including Home BiPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure), Home CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), Home IV potassium infusion and the electrolyte infusions, IV antibiotics. We also provide services to clients at home that are not ventilated but have a tracheostomy and who need 24-hour intensive care nurses at home.
We’re also providing an emergency department, bypass service for the Western Sydney local area health district. So if you need CCRNs to provide an emergency department bypass service for your hospital, please reach out to us.
So in today’s video, I want to answer a question from one of our members. We also actually have a membership for families in intensive care and you can get access to the membership for families in intensive care at intensivecarehotline.com by clicking on the membership link or by going to intensivecaresupport.org directly.
So today, I have a question from one of our members who had their dad in ICU for prolonged periods and then went home more or less out of sheer desperation because they did no longer want to stay in hospital because they just thought it was terrible. And they were, for lack of a better term, desperate to go home, which is what they decided to do. But they decided to go home without 24-hour intensive care nurses even though their dad had a tracheostomy. So, he bounced back into hospital, which is no surprise to me. Let me read out the email from our member who says,
“Hi Patrik and Team,
Earlier this year, as you know, my dad suffered a heart attack. He got discharged from the hospital in the beginning of September with a tracheostomy and wasn’t quite ready for rehabilitation therapy. So they recommended, for him to stay in hospital. My mom and I visited obviously daily, but it wasn’t a good experience. So he went home with minimal support and minimal nursing. Just a nurse once a week who wasn’t tracheostomy competent, but he was discharged too soon without little support.
Needless to say that my dad bounced back and forth into the hospital just like you predicted. And back home two times before he came back home mid-October. Until last week, the end of November to go back into hospital. Again he’s had all sorts of setbacks and he’s now in the hospital with a pressure wound area around stage 4 to 5 that originated in the hospital bed he was at in the emergency department, the second time he went back into the hospital.
The MRI showed that the pressure sore is to his bone. He’s in ICU at this time, but I have set up his patient portal, I would like you to look at the medical records. I’m reaching out to see if Intensive Care at Home services can still help.
And they’re talking about possible surgery to clean his wounds out and all the risks that are involved due to his fragile condition. What do you think is the best option here?”
So this is a really good email like we’ve been saying here for over a decade, you can’t go home with a tracheostomy without 24-hour intensive care nurses. It’s just not going to happen. And here is why.
So over the years, we have looked after clients at home with the tracheostomy and ventilation where the funding body, whether it’s private health insurance, whether it’s the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), whether it’s other funding bodies, we’re only funding overnight intensive care nurses and no intensive care nurses during the day, even though the clients had a tracheostomy or were ventilated. Like in this situation here, the client goes back to ICU when they have a tracheostomy.
Now, needless to say that the clients that I have been referring to that were not funded for 24-hour intensive care nurses at home and only for a night shift, where then during the daytime, either family members or support workers or personal care assistants were meant to look after the clients with the tracheostomy. They passed away cause simply the tracheostomy is an unstable airway that can only be managed by intensive care nurses, emergency department nurses, maybe anesthetic nurses. But really, that’s the only skill level that can safely look after the tracheostomy. So, needless to say those patients passed away during the daytime just as we had predicted at the time.
So that is what’s really happening in the community. So therefore, I am not surprised that your dad has bounced back into ICU. I think it’s out of sheer luck that he hasn’t passed away because like we recommended early in the year, he should not have gone home without 24-hour intensive care nurses.
So, well, is it still an option for him to go home with 24-hour intensive care nurses? Absolutely. Should they wash out his stage 4 stage 5 pressure? So as well, if they are infected, probably. Yes. Right. And that’s also very good nursing care is coming in.
If you didn’t have the 24-hour nurses at home, of course, no one would do proper pressure area care. And of course, you’ll end up with stage 4, stage 5 pressure sores that could lead to sepsis (10) and which could be lethal really. So the risk is huge by not following best practice guidelines, but best practice guidelines and evidence-based guidelines.
So if you look at our evidence-based Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines on our website at intensivecareathome.com, you will find that research and evidence has shown that the only way to safely look after patients at home with the tracheostomy and/ ventilation are with intensive care nurses with a minimum of two years’ intensive care nursing experience. And that’s the only way it’s safe. And that’s the research is a result of over 25 years of Intensive Care at Home nursing in Germany, in particular and also over 10 years’ Intensive Care at Home nursing in Australia, right.
So it’s proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that anything less than that is lethal. And that’s why those guidelines are here. That’s why the evidence is here. So it’s not too late to get your dad back home with 24-hour intensive care nurses. If you want that reach out to us and how is it going to be funded?
Well, currently with Intensive Care at Home, we are operating all around Australia. We’re operating in all major capital cities including rural and regional areas. We are an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved service provider. We are a TAC (Transport Accident Commission) in Victoria approved service provider. We are an ICare approved service provider in New South Wales and NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme in Queensland) approved service provider in Queensland. And we’re also a DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) approved service provider all around Australia. We have also worked with private health insurance. We have also received funding through public hospitals directly or through departments of health.
Please keep in mind that we cut the cost of an intensive care bed by approximately 50%. That is of interest for a hospital that is of interest for a funding body because we’re improving the quality of life for our clients and their families. They want to be at home and we’re also cutting the cost of an intensive care bed by 50%. So there’s economics of scale in our offer in our proposal.
Now, we also provide Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Specialist Support Coordination. Please reach out to us if you need NDIS specialist support coordination to get an NDIS plan to get funding for nursing care.
We are also reaching out to families in intensive care. A loved one in intensive care was stuck in hospital on long-term ventilation, tracheostomy. Please reach out to us if you’re at home already and you have insufficient support because you have an unstable team or your loved one goes back to hospital all the time. Or if you’re watching this yourself and you are stuck at home, you’re bouncing back into hospital all the time. Please reach out to us. We can put a stop to that. We keep clients at home predictably. As a matter of fact, I do argue that we are the service in Australia that looks after the highest security clients in the community because we have the third-party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home. We have built the intellectual property to provide Intensive Care at Home. No other service can do what we can do with all the accreditation that we have and the intellectual property we built in our team.
We employ as a matter of fact, hundreds of years of intensive care and ED nursing experience combined in our service. No other service sends that high level of skill into the community in Australia in 2023. No other service has achieved the level of accreditation that we have achieved as an organization.
So if you’re at home already, you have insufficient support or insufficient funding, please reach out to us. We can help you with all of it because we have been involved in the advocacy for our clients from day one.
Now, if you are a critical care nurse and you are looking for a career change, we currently have jobs in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Albury Wodonga, Warragul in South Gibson in Victoria, as well as Bendigo in Victoria. We are looking for committed and confident staff that can give us regular availabilities four weeks in advance that can give our clients regular shifts.
Please don’t apply if you can’t give us regular availabilities. That’s not going to work for our clients. So only apply to us if you are wanting to work with us regularly and with our clients regularly because we want to build those relationships, those strong relationships with our clients and with our staff to make it a win-win situation.
Now, if you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator and you need nursing care for your NDIS participants, please reach out to us as well. If you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator and you don’t know how to go about nursing care funding through the NDIS for your participants, please reach out to us as well. We’re also providing NDIS nursing assessments.
If you are an intensive care specialist, intensive care consultant and you’re looking for a career change, please contact to us as well. We are currently expanding our medical team as well. And if you’re a hospital executive watching this, we want to hear from you as well.
We know you’ve got bed blocks in your ICU and your hospitals, with tracheostomy, Home TPN people that are blocking beds that are much better off at home and most of them would be NDIS funded. So it’s not out of pocket for you or if you are a private hospital executive watching this, we can also talk to the private health insurances.
So I hope that helps.
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Thanks for watching.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and intensivecareathome.com, and I will talk to you in a few days.
Take care for now.