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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 to save money and resources, whilst providing Quality Care!

In the last blog I shared

WHEN A LOVED ONE IS IN THE ICU: THE SYMPTOM BURDEN OF FAMILY CAREGIVERS

You can check out last week’s episode by clicking on the link here.

In today’s blog I want to share what we are finding in our day to work with INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME clients

Home Health Care in Australia in crisis: Medically complex and ventilated Patients are referred to the NDIS

The federal government has made around $16 Billion dollars available to fund the NDIS scheme for this financial year.

Sounds like a lot of money and it sure is! And it’s great for people with disabilities and it has been way overdue for such a wealthy and prosperous country like Australia to look after their disabled citizens!

And yet it still leaves home health care in crisis, because most clients with medically complex issues that are not disability related, such as seizure management, ventilation (invasive and non-invasive), tracheostomy, PEG, cough assist, suctioning, TPN administration and unstable airway management are being referred to the NDIS!

Those clients shouldn’t be referred to the NDIS in the first place because clearly all of the above are medical issues and not disability issues.

All of the above require specialist care and specialist ICU nurses in the home to manage seizure management, ventilation (invasive and non-invasive), tracheostomy, PEG, cough assist, suctioning, unstable airway management, home TPN to point out the most common situations that require ICU nurses in the home.

The state governments are trying to wash their hands clean by delegating state health care expenditure and clinical responsibilities on to a federal scheme that is unable to provide the resources and the expertise needed to deal with such medically complex health related matters.

How on earth should clients (adults & children) requiring multiple ICU readmissions per year and taking up a $5,000 per bed day in ICU be looked after by an NDIS scheme?

How on earth should clients (adults & children) on long-term ventilation blocking ICU beds go home with an NDIS scheme?

The state departments of health are trying to delegate crucial and also life or death responsibilities to the NDIS and it leaves innocent citizens in urgent need of qualified and skilled Intensive Home Care nursing at peril!

By state governments continuing to fund long-term ICU stays instead of Intensive Home care nursing, they continue to pay $5,000 per bed day instead of reducing the cost of an ICU bed by more than 50% and provide quality of life for clients and their families in a holistic and family friendly home care environment!

Or even worse, by inappropriately trying to delegate home health care and nursing responsibilities to the NDIS- where funding for nursing care is non- existent- state governments are literally trying to discharge vulnerable and medically complex clients home with inadequate or no support, leading to life threatening medical emergencies in a home care environment that lead clients back to ICU straight away, with dire consequences for clients and their families!

What’s even worse is that the decisions are being made by the state health departments that have no clinical experience or exposure and don’t understand the gravity of medically complex issues!

In the meantime state departments of health keep funding expensive and in-demand ICU beds for $5,000 per bed day even though the cost could be cut to less than 50% by using INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services.

State departments of health need to stop using the NDIS to try and delegate health responsibilities on to a scheme that

• a. Is not responsible for health related and medically complex clients

• b. Has no expertise to deal with medically complex issues such as seizure management, ventilation (invasive and non-invasive), tracheostomy, PEG, cough assist, suctioning, unstable airway management and home TPN

• c. Federally funded and states are trying to relinquish and delegate financial responsibilities on the federal government whilst they are trying to ignore their health responsibilities!

INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is evidence based and we have now provided services to dozens of Patients and the model clearly works!

We create win-win situations every single day and we provide clinically appropriate services by sending ICU nurses in the home to keep Patients out of ICU!

• Evidence- Based approach http://intensivecareathome.com.au/evidence-based-approach/

• MECHANICAL HOME VENTILATION GUIDELINES https://intensivecareathome.com/mechanical-home-ventilation-guidelines/

We also provide specialist support coordination for clients who have been referred to the NDIS but who need medical and nursing care instead of NDIS support. This specialist support coorodination is funded through the NDIS.

Please contact us on 041 094 2230 so we can help you to get funding for nursing care!

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.

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!