Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Hi it’s Patrik Hutzel from www.intensivecareathome.com.au where we help long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy to improve their Quality of life and where we also help hospitals and Intensive Care Units to save money and resources, whilst providing Quality Care!
In last week’s blog I was asking “Has Intensive Care become obsolete for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy?” You can check out the answer here if you haven’t read the blog.
In this week’s blog I want to bring up another topic that would be at the heart of many Intensive Care Units, Hospitals and of course any health funding agency, whether it be public or private.
In this week I want to talk about “How to increase the number of acute admissions in Intensive Care!”
The bread and butter of most Intensive Care Units is the throughput of high acuity admissions. It’s also what usually makes and keeps the Intensive Care staff happy as well. It’s furthermore also what keeps Patients and their Families happy too. Nobody wants to stay in Intensive Care for any longer than necessary.
But what if some Patients stay in Intensive Care for longer than expected and what if those Patients occupy an expensive ICU beds for many weeks and many months? And what if those long-term stays stop other more acute Patients from coming into Intensive Care because of lack of available resources? What if hospital waiting lists keep growing because of long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy occupying an ICU bed, even though those Patients can easily be treated at home?
The answer is simple. INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides a tailor made solution and a win-win situation for all parties involved in the process.
Patients and their Families would much rather be at home than in Intensive Care and Intensive Care Units can free up their valuable and expensive resources that go along with it. Intensive Care Units can use their valuable resources such as beds and staff(Doctors and Nurses) for more acutely unwell Patients and the Patients that need an ICU bed ASAP if not immediately, will have timely availability of those services and resources and everybody wins.
Think about it. It does make economic sense and it is certainly far more Patient and Family friendly than keeping long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy in Intensive Care for long periods of time, in some cases for up to 12 months. Imagine, 12 months in Intensive Care with very little or no Quality of Life for Patients and their Families. And also imagine 12 months where an ICU bed is only available for one Patient. Within any given period that a long-term ventilated Adult or Child occupies an ICU bed, numerous other Patients in need of acute Intensive Care services could have been treated.
Patients can be successfully weaned at home as well, as many Intensive Home Care services in Germany have shown over and over again.
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME’s services can also be used in End of Life situations, where Patients can approach their end of life at home, even on a ventilator. Again, if a prolonged stay in Intensive Care does not lead to the desired outcome of treating a Patient why not leave Intensive Care and have Quality of end of life at home?
What are your thoughts? Do you think that your Intensive Care Unit could increase the number of Patients in Intensive Care by engaging external services such as INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME to free up your ICU beds? Leave your comments and suggestions on the blog.
If you want to discuss your needs and how we can help your Intensive Care Unit and your long-term ventilated Patients and their Families and if your organisation wants to free up ICU beds or if you simply have any questions, give me a call on 041 094 2230 or simply send me an email to [email protected]
This is Patrik Hutzel from www.intensivecareathome.com.au and I’ll see you again in another update next week.