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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 at home and where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units at home whilst providing quality care for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies at home, otherwise medically complex adults and children at home, which includes BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), home tracheostomy care for adults and children that are not ventilated Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), home IV potassium infusions, home IV magnesium infusions as well as home IV antibiotics. We also provide port management, central line management, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line management as well as Hickman’s line management and we also provide palliative care services at home.

We’re also sending our critical care nurses into the home for emergency department bypass services. We have done so successfully in the past for the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, their in-touch program.

So today I have an email from Annette who says,

“Hi Patrik,

I wonder if you can give me some advice. My husband has had a brain stem stroke (92). He has been improving slowly. However, he was placed in a nursing home. He had been there for 17 days. He developed a collapsed lung and chest infection.

He was admitted to the hospital in April and the chest had been treated. He had several infections while in hospital. He is also PEG fed and there seems to be an issue with the PEG feeding. He was not keeping the feeds down and he was vomiting a lot. So, they put the PEG further down on the lower bowels which he seems to be tolerating the feeds now.

He is now ready to go back home. The doctor at home says he will not accept him back unless he will have 24-hour nursing care stating also that he’s not to be admitted to hospital should he become unwell. He also has a tracheostomy.

We as a family have not agreed to sign anything because everyone needs to be treated if they are unwell. Family have agreed to palliative care at home because they say he has long-term medical issues, and we agree to treat him at home first should he become unwell before going to hospital with 24-hour nursing care because he’s got the tracheostomy and the PEG.

I feel we are being pressured into signing a document. We don’t believe we should be pressured into signing anything. Am I right on saying this and how can Intensive Care at Home help in this situation?

I would appreciate any advice.

From Annette”

Well, thank you, Annette for writing in.

Well, the first thing is you shouldn’t be signing anything that you’re not comfortable with signing. The doctor is right in saying that he needs to go home with 24-hour intensive care nurses, that he is correct because it’s evidence based, and the evidence is on our website at intensivecareathome.com.

If you look at the Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines, which are evidence-based and are a result of over 25 years of Intensive Care at Home nursing in Germany and over 12 years Intensive Care at Home nursing in Australia, and the model has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. So, what does that mean? It means that, once your husband is at home with intensive care nurses 24 hours a day, he should go back to hospital if he deteriorates.

But here is what you don’t know. One of our KPIs which means key performance indicators at the Intensive Care at Home is to have no non-elective hospital readmissions. So that means we know we have a proven concept that keeps our clients at home predictably. The most important word here is predictably. You don’t want hidden miss, and you want your husband to be home predictably. That’s something we certainly achieve all the time with Intensive Care at Home because then a lot of your worries are going out of the window. I would strongly suggest here that you let the doctor talk to us so we can explain to him what our capabilities are at home.

I argue as of 2024 we are the nursing service that looks after the sickest clients in the community that takes on the highest acuity in the community because we exclusively work with critical care nurses that have a minimum of two years critical care nursing experience.

As a matter of fact, 70% to 80% of our nursing workforce has completed a postgraduate critical care qualification, which means our nurses are highly skilled, just as highly skilled as they are in an intensive care unit. We are employing hundreds of years of intensive care nursing experience combined. No other service is bringing in a higher level of experience into the community than intensive care at home.

If you think I’m wrong, I’m happy to talk to anyone who thinks that I am not saying the right thing here. If there’s someone out there who brings a higher level of skills into the community in Australia, I want to know about it and I’m all open for it.

There’s also no other service in 2024 in Australia that has achieved third party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing. Again, I stand to be corrected, but my research is showing there’s nobody else that has the intellectual property.

The skills then we have in terms of providing Intensive Care at Home, improving the quality of life and quality of end of life for patients and their families, cutting the cost of an intensive care bed by approximately 50% and also by freeing up ICU bed, we are creating this incredible win-win situation for all stakeholders, for all parties in a situation like that.

So, Annette, don’t sign anything for anyone. Your husband needs to go back to intensive care if needed. But I’m also very, very positive that whether it’s tracheostomy, ventilation, PEG whatever needs to be done we can do at home, and we have done so successfully for the last 12 years, and we can do the same for your husband.

Also, if you need help with the funding, we can help you with the funding side of things. That’s why we are in business because we’ve been successfully advocating for our clients from Day 1.

Now, with Intensive Care at Home we are currently operating all around Australia in all major capital cities as well as in all regional and rural areas. We are an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved service provider in Australia, TAC (Transport Accident Commission) and WorkSafe in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme in Queensland), as well as DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) all around the country. Our clients also receive funding through public hospitals, private health funds as well as departments of health.

We are the only provider in Australia in 2024 that has achieved third-party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing. No other provider has been this much intellectual property or Intensive Care at Home nursing than Intensive Care at Home.

Also, we are employing hundreds of years of intensive care nursing experience in the community combined. Once again, no other provider has that level of expertise in the community than we do. Once again, we are the only service provider in Australia in 2024 that is third party accredited for Intensive Care at Home.

Now, we are also providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination. Our NDIS Support Coordinator, Amanda Riches has a wealth of knowledge and her team and I’ll put a link towards the this video where I put an interview with Amanda in the written version of this blog, check out the link.

If you’re at home already and you realize that you’re on a ventilator, tracheostomy, BIPAP, CPAP, home TPN, whatever the case may be and you realize your current setup is not working. I encourage you to contact us. Once again, we have always managed to source the funding for our clients with our advocacy because we also do NDIS nursing assessments and other nursing assessments.

Furthermore, we also provide TAC case management for TAC clients in Victoria. Like I said, if you’re at home already, reach out to us, if you’re stuck in ICU or in hospital, please reach out to us as well for an earlier discharge.

If you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator watching this and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, please reach out to us as well or if you’re looking for funding for more nursing care for your participant and you don’t know how to go about it, what evidence to provide, I also encourage you to reach out to us. We can help you with the advocacy and we also provide NDIS specialist nursing assessments done by critical care nurses.

If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change, we are currently offering jobs for critical care nurses in the home in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga, in Bendigo in Victoria, as well as in Warragul, in Victoria and in Geelong. If you have worked in critical care for a minimum of two years, pediatric ICU, ED and you have already completed the postgraduate critical care qualification, we will be delighted to hear from you.

Disclaimer, because we are offering a tailor-made solution for our clients, which includes regular staff, our clients will have the same staff coming over and over again because they’re very, very vulnerable. It’s all about building the critical relationships with our clients and with our team members and having regular and stable teams.

That also means if you’re looking for agency work where you can come and go, this may not be the right fit for you on a long-term basis because our clients want the same staff over and over again. So, it’s all about building relationships with our clients and we want to build a relationship with you as well, of course, so that it remains a win-win situation for everyone.

If you are an intensive care specialist or ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We are currently expanding our medical team as well. We can also help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU and ED for your long-term patients or for your regular readmitting patients. We’re here to help you take the pressure off your ICUs and ED beds and in most cases, you won’t even pay for it.

If you’re a hospital executive watching this and you have bed blocks in your ICU, ED and respiratory wards, please reach out to us as well. We can help you.

Lastly, if you’re in the U.S. or in the U.K. and you’re watching this, and you need help. We want to hear from you as well. We can help you there privately.

Once again, contact us at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].

If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families with Intensive Care at Home and intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell, share this video with your friends and families and comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights here from this video.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on a show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to our email newsletter at intensivecareathome.com.

Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.