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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 Tracheostomy 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 a report from the ABC where the ABC highlights once again that home healthcare is cheaper and safer!
You can check out last week’s blog here.
ABC reports, Home health care “cheaper and safer”!
In this week’s blog I want to ask
Is an “NFR” or a “withdrawal of treatment” “in the best interest” for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care?
For most long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care some rather significant questions arise sooner or later…
Questions around quality of life or quality of care will inevitably come up sooner or later. Questions around perceived alternatives or non-perceived alternatives come up as well.
Over the many years that I worked in Intensive Care, as well as in the Intensive Home Care space, I have witnessed many situations where medically stable long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care were deemed as “too difficult to be weaned” off the ventilator and off the tracheostomy and therefore they were perceived to not being able to leave Intensive Care…
They were also deemed to have “no quality of life” and therefore a “withdrawal of treatment” would be “in the best interest” for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies…
Sadly, those points of views are often limited by a strict clinical and Intensive Care paradigm.
Once a long-term stay in Intensive Care is on the horizon because of the ventilator dependency and the tracheostomy of a Patient, all sorts of rationalisations go through clinicians minds and they are completely missing the point.
Yes, in some instances a “withdrawal of treatment” or an “NFR” (not for resuscitation) order might be “in the best interest” of a long-term ventilated Patient with tracheostomy in Intensive Care.
However this can only ever be truthfully decided upon once all genuine alternatives have been explained to a Patient and their family.
Most clinicians in Intensive Care(doctors and nurses) are still thinking that a critically ill Patient in Intensive Care has two options:
- Survive their critical illness and recover to the point where they can leave Intensive Care and go to a hospital ward
- Approach their end of life in Intensive Care and consequently die in ICU
This is very limited thinking from my point of view and doesn’t consider other viable options that provide a win-win situation for all stakeholders when it comes to long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care.
For any of the growing numbers of long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies in Intensive Care the question shouldn’t be about “limiting” or “withdrawing” treatment, it should be about creating a viable option where everybody is winning.
Thankfully INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME has created such a viable win-win situation and we can provide home care for medically stable long-term ventilated Intensive Care Patients with tracheostomies.
This gives Patients and families choice beyond the current limited Intensive Care paradigm, it frees up precious, scarce and expensive Intensive Care beds, it saves hospitals, Departments of health and private health funds to pay a premium up to $5,000 per bed day and it gives Patients and their families a much improved quality of life in their own home.
What are your thoughts? Do you think that an “NFR”(not for resuscitation) order or a “withdrawal of treatment” is “in the best interest” of long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies?
What do you think are the alternatives?
Leave your comments on the blog.
For more information, you can contact me on 041 094 2230 or email [email protected]
We are also currently hiring enthusiastic and experienced Intensive Care nurses with Critical Care certificate for ventilated Clients in Melbourne.
We would also like to hear from you if you have a minimum of 2 years Paediatric ICU experience, as we have opportunities here as well!
For more information check out our Career section here www.intensivecareathome.com.au/careers or contact Patrik on 041 094 2230 or simply hit reply to this email.
You can also contact me on 041 094 2230 if you want to know more about how we can help you, your Intensive Care Unit and your Patients and Families.
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!