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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 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 talked about
You can check out last week’s blog here.
In this week’s blog I want to share and discuss
How to look beyond intensive care and create new pathways!
Current paradigms in intensive care in most English-speaking countries are that a critically ill Patient in intensive care has two options.
- The patient recovers and goes to a hospital ward (sometimes LTAC in the USA)
- The patient dies in intensive care
That’s a pretty bleak outlook as far as I’m concerned and it doesn’t have to be that way.
This current view and paradigm in most ICU’s in English speaking countries is old, outdated and very limiting for Patients, their families as well as for ICU’s and hospitals.
Thankfully it doesn’t have to be that way because our service INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME has created evidence based and successful models of care that reach beyond the current limited paradigms that most intensive care units in English speaking countries still have.
For example, many long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies in intensive care stay in intensive care for way too long and can go home instead.
Other, medically complex Patients in intensive care can also go home with 24/7 nursing care provided by ICU/PICU nurses in the home.
We have numerous case studies from our clients here to verify what I’m saying.
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME case studies https://intensivecareathome.com/case-studies/
To give you some background, in the 1970’s and in the 1980’s many European countries, Germany in particular was outsourcing care from hospitals into the home and HITH or “hospital in the home” type services shifted in a way that was way more Patient and family friendly and it clearly saved money and beds for health insurances as well as hospitals.
HITH was and still is a huge success and out of this huge success came the next evolution in home care which was intensive care at home.
As more and more long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies were taking up ICU/PICU beds, the burden on Patients, families, hospitals, ICU’s, PICU’s grew immensely.
Furthermore, with the shortage of ICU/PICU beds, the pressure grew to look at alternatives besides 1) going to a hospital ward 2) death in intensive care
It therefore became rather obvious that intensive home care is a solution that creates win-win situations.
After bringing the concept to Melbourne, Australia in 2014 it’s rather obvious that intensive care at home is not location dependent and works anywhere.
Now the landscape of intensive care and paediatric intensive care is changing by creating win-win situations by sending more and more long-term ventilated Patients home with INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME.
This reduces the cost of a $5,000- $6,000 per bed day intensive care bed by approximately 50%. It most importantly improves the quality of life for Patients and their families and it frees up much needed and in-demand intensive care beds.
Therefore, pathways in intensive care mainly for long-term ventilated and otherwise medically complex Patients in intensive care have changed and continue to change.
Now the pathways look
1) The patient recovers and goes to a hospital ward (sometimes LTAC in the USA)
2) The patient dies in intensive care
3) INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME for long-term ventilated Patients (adults & children) with tracheostomies and otherwise medically complex adults and children with 24/7 ICU/PICU nurses coming to a Patients home and are providing an intensive care substitution service in the home
Current, past and future clients
We know from our current, past and also our future clients that they would never experience a long-term stay in intensive care for themselves or their loved ones, because of what they’ve been through.
With our clients having gone through the trauma of having their loved ones in intensive care long-term and often seeing no perceived alternative but to stay in ICU/PICU long-term or even worse, potentially having their loved ones treatment withdrawn because of limited or no perceived alternatives but to stay in ICU/PICU long-term, gives INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME a legitimate and compelling reason to bring our ICU/PICU skills into the communities!
We have created much needed pathways for long-term ICU/PICU patients and their families as well as for ICU’s/PICU’s to manage their beds, staff and other resources more effectively!
Kind Regards
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, northern suburbs, Mornington Peninsula 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
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!