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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 another case study
You can check out last week’s episode by clicking on the link here.
In today’s blog I want to share
How do INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME and long-term Intensive Care compare?
For anybody who has worked in Intensive Care for any length of time it’s crystal clear that current occupancy rates as well as average length of stays in Intensive Care are non-sustainable!
They are non-sustainable on a financial level as well as on a bed-occupancy level!
For any family who has a loved one either in Intensive Care for long-term treatment or for any family that has a loved one at home who’s at risk of going into Intensive Care at any given time, it is also clear that other solutions must be found to tackle long-term ventilation or otherwise medically complex situations that can be managed at home with ICU nurses.
Therefore, let’s make a quick comparison in how the two solutions stack up against each other, the INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME solution or the long-term ICU solution
Let’s quickly compare the two options
- Let’s look at long-term Intensive Care
- The cost is approximately $5,000 per bed day in Intensive Care
- Intensive Care beds are in high demand and for any day a bed is blocked unnecessarily other critically ill Patients may be unable to access an ICU bed
- Quality of life for Patients and their families is diminished in Intensive Care
- In end of life situations, the quality of end of life is diminished for Intensive Care Patients and their families (75 % of people in first world countries if given a choice want to die at home and yet, less than 15% of people in first world countries do die at home)
- The infection risk in Intensive Care is extremely high due to the exposure to other critically ill Patients in the environment, often leading to unnecessary infections and complications
- Weaning off ventilation and tracheostomy is often difficult due to a sterile hospital environment that is not Patient and family friendly
- Let’s look at INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME
- The cost for INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is less than 50% of a hospital ICU bed, therefore savings for health funding agencies and hospitals are immense!
- INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is freeing up ICU beds that are in high demand, therefore other critically ill Patients are able to access this life saving ICU beds
- The quality of life for Patients and their families is improving significantly at home. For example, most of our clients report a significant improvement in their quality of life when being looked after at home by ICU nurses. This enables them to participate in social activities, go back to school, kindergarten, study etc…
- The quality of end of life for Patients and their families is significantly improved and our client families are immensely grateful that we are able to provide end of life care at home instead of spending time in ICU. We provide end of life care and palliative care for both adults and children. We therefore provide a service that 75% of the population wants in first world countries, which is to die at home
- Most of our client families can go back to work and have back some “normality” in their lives once their loved one is at home. Most families who have a loved one in Intensive Care long term are unable to work because they spend day and night in Intensive Care. Their family relationships and other commitments suffer.
- Weaning off ventilation and tracheostomy at home is possible and we have proven this with our clients. The risk for infections is reduced at home and therefore the risk for complications is reduced.
- Most of all, families are united at home and the stress of being in Intensive Care is reduced because we have the skills and expertise required to manage and care for Patients on ventilation, tracheostomy and other medically complex Patients at home
Now that you can see the comparison, which one would you choose? Leave your comments on the blog!
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 Melbourne, Sunbury 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
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!