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Hi it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREATHOME.COM.AU 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 last week’s blog I talked about

“THE 5 BIGGEST INEFFICIENCIES IN INTENSIVE CARE IN AUSTRALIA!”

You can check out last week’s BLOG here!
In this week’s BLOG I want to talk about

“LONG-TERM VENTILATION AND TRACHEOSTOMY IN INTENSIVE CARE, 3 REASONS WHY HEALTH CONSUMERS NEED TO DEMAND MORE!”

Intensive Care is a challenging environment!

It’s a challenging environment for Doctors, Nurses, Patients and their Families!
With the constant pressure on expensive, in-demand and scarce Intensive Care beds and with the constant pressure from Families to get the best possible treatment for their loved ones, the environment often feels like being in a pressure cooker!

The pressure tends to be constantly high and people can get stressed. It’s a dynamic and often volatile environment!
For many long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their families in Intensive Care it means they are exposed to an environment that is stressful, busy, noisy and anything but conducive on their way to recovery.

Long-term ventilated Patients and their Families are facing a massive dilemma and it hasn’t been addressed properly in ICU!

If long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies are awake and have even the slightest awareness of their situation, it doesn’t take much for them to realise their dilemma, they are extremely frustrated, often depressed and they have no quality of life.
The same applies to their Families. The minute they realise that the ventilator dependency and the tracheostomy is keeping their loved one in Intensive Care for longer than expected, their fears, their frustrations, their anxiety and their stress levels go through the roof!

It’s a very difficult and challenging situation to be in. And it’s a difficult situation for Intensive Care teams too!

It’s by far more interesting and exciting to look after Patients who are in their most critical phase then it is to look after ‘Mr Smith’, the day 85 ventilated Patient with the tracheostomy who is not going anywhere in a hurry.

And if Mr Smith and his family were to choose they would probably love to get out of Intensive Care rather sooner than later.

And if anybody would look at the costs of Mr Smith’s stay in Intensive Care that costs the health system around $ 5,000 per bed day, one can put 2+2 together.

1) Mr Smith and his family wanting to leave Intensive Care soon
2) The massive costs associated with a long-term stay in Intensive Care

Those two facts make for a simple and also compelling scenario to empower health consumers to demand more and to demand proven alternatives!
In this day and age, where information is readily available, it’s time for health consumers to step up and to demand more!

In fact, there are 3 reasons why health consumers need to demand more

1) A shift to more home care, even in high acuity areas such as Intensive Care is inevitable! Just because Australia is lacking 15 years behind when it comes to home care for long-term ventilation with tracheostomy doesn’t mean that health consumers are not informed. Health consumers are smart and they know how to find information on the internet and put pressure back on the health system to demand what they want and what has been readily available in other first world countries for a long time!

2) Long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies and their Families want a holistic care model. A holistic care model means that the clinical needs of a Patient need to be addressed and it also means that the needs of their Families need to be addressed too. If Mr Smith’s family has been visiting him in Intensive Care for the last 3 months it has huge implications for Mr Smith’s family! It often means that some of Mr Smith’s family members stopped producing an income, they are neglecting other important parts or their lives and their Families, such as the relationships with their spouses, children, parents etc… this is often worse when it comes to long-term ventilated children with tracheostomies. We know of some cases where children stayed in Intensive Care for 18 months with huge implications for the children and their Families! There is absolutely no need for that, because an earlier discharge with specialised services such as INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME can improve their situation dramatically!

3) Choice, choice, choice! Choice is critical! The health system needs to create more choice for consumers! It’s not a “one size fits all” model that works best for everyone! I believe that many Intensive Care Units are operating in a vacuum and haven’t looked outside of their own four walls in a while, nor do they have an awareness of what’s been happening in other first world countries for the last 15 years when it comes to INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services for long-term ventilated adults& children with tracheostomies!

What are your thoughts? Do you think that health consumers need to demand more when they have a loved one long-term ventilated in Intensive Care?
Leave your thoughts and comments on the blog.

Please also note that INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME has been selected as a preferred provider for Queensland Health Services as part of the recent “Hospital in the Home” tender.

We are also currently hiring enthusiastic Intensive Care nurses with Critical Care certificate for a ventilated Melbourne Client, close to the CBD. For more information check out our Career section here www.intensivecareathome.com.au/careers or contact Patrik on 041 094 2230

You can also contact me 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 INTENSIVECAREATHOME.COM.AU and I’ll see you again in another update next week!