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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 and otherwise medically complex Patients by improving their Quality of life and where we also provide tailor made solutions to hospitals and Intensive Care Units, reducing the cost of an ICU bed by 50%, whilst providing Quality Care!
In last weeks blog I talked about
You can check out last week’s blog by clicking on the link here!
In this weeks blog I want to talk about the
False economy and no quality of life! Keeping long-term ventilated Patients in ICU for longer than needed!
Let’s dive right into it!
An ICU or Paediatric ICU bed is the most expensive bed in a hospital.
It costs approximately in excess of $5,000 per bed day!
On top of being the most expensive hospital bed, it is also the bed in a hospital that is the most sought after and therefore in high demand!
Therefore, if ICU/PICU beds are not readily available for critically ill Patients it can have dramatic consequences for Patients in need of such an in-demand ICU/PICU bed.
The trend is clear, with Intensive Care Units, Emergency departments, as well as first responders such as paramedics or mobile intensive care units (MICA) attending to medical emergencies such as cardiac arrests, motor vehicle accidents etc… and improving their success rates in saving lives in the short and long-term, it often results in those Patients requiring long-term ventilation and tracheostomies!
Moreover, more neonates surviving premature or complicated birth also often results in extended NICU/PICU stay.
This puts significant upward pressure on ICU/PICU beds with the result of average length of stay going up, costs rising astronomically and Patients and their families having no quality of life because of their prolonged ICU/PICU stays!
In order to understand the dilemma that ICU’s/PICU’s, long-term ventilated Patients and families are in, we need to take a good look at this situation from a few ankles.
Prolonged induced coma and inability to wean off a breathing tube leading to tracheostomy
First off, when Patients are being induced into a coma for mechanical ventilation support with a breathing tube/endotracheal tube to begin with for respiratory failure due to the nature of their critical illness, many Patients fail ventilation weaning to begin with and they need a tracheostomy.
After a tracheostomy has been performed ventilation weaning should be easier because the need for sedation and an induced coma is minimised.
Depending on the nature of the critical illness, the length of an induced coma, pre-medical history and depending why a tracheostomy and ventilation was required in the first place, ventilation weaning and decannulation (removal of the tracheostomy) is often prolonged and multiple weaning attempts are needed to be successful.
In many instances, ventilation and tracheostomy weaning is unsuccessful and therefore an increasing number of adults and paediatric Patients in intensive care remain on life support with ventilation and tracheostomy for an indefinite period of time.
False economy! Blocking $5,000 per bed day ICU/PICU beds with no quality of life for Patients!
They are therefore stuck in intensive care with no quality of life, whilst blocking a precious, $5,000 per bed day ICU/PICU bed that could be used for other more acutely unwell Patients in intensive care.
Meanwhile most long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies in intensive care can go home with a specialised and accredited service like INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME.
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides a win-win situation and stops the false economy of many intensive care units and hospitals, funding $5,000 per bed day whilst the cost of the ICU/PICU bed can be slashed by at least 50% with INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services instead.
This improves quality of life and/or quality of end of life for patients and their families as we have shown with many of our other client case studies!
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME case studies (including NIV/BIPAP/CPAP ventilation and otherwise medically complex Patients at risk of ICU/PICU readmissions)
https://intensivecareathome.com/case-studies/
Improving the quality of life and/or quality of end of life significantly for long-term ICU/PICU patients at home as a genuine alternative to a long-term stay in ICU/PICU is what we do best!
Families benefit from our service too.
Rather than spending day and night in ICU/PICU, we bring normality to our clients because we enable our clients and their families to go back to work, look after other family members and generally speaking get on with their lives!
This isn’t possible in ICU/PICU.
Some of our paediatric clients in particular have the ability to go back to school etc… and once again live a life on their terms rather than the terms of an ICU or PICU!
It creates a win-win situation for all stakeholders.
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME reduces the cost of an ICU/PICU bed by 50% and improves quality of life!
The win for ICU/PICU and hospitals, as well as funding bodies is that the cost of an intensive care bed is being significantly reduced by more than 50% of the $5,000 per bed day, going from ICU/PICU to INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME.
On top of the massive cost reduction, we are freeing up expensive, in-demand ICU/PICU beds that are then able to be used for more acutely unwell and more critical patients.
That means surgical or medical waiting lists are not getting longer because ICU/PICU beds are available and critically ill Patients can get into ICU/PICU when needed.
Patrik Hutzel
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 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
https://www.melbournehealthaccelerator.com/
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!