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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. And where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units whilst providing quality services for long-term, ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies, as well as medically complex patients at home including Home BiPAP (bilevel positive airway pr)essure), Home CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), Home TPN (total parenteral nutrition), Home IV electrolyte infusions including potassium, Home IV antibiotics, central line care at home, PICC (peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line care at home, Hickman’s line care at home as well as port catheter at home.
We also look after adults and children at home that are not ventilated but have a tracheostomy. So really we’re sending intensive care nurses and emergency department, nurses into the home, for predominantly long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies.
And today, I actually want to answer a question from a prospect who has a lot of questions with her husband being in ICU. So let’s just read out the email from Pamela who says,
“My husband has been in hospital for over three months and he still has many problems, but they’re talking about sending him home. They said with his problems, a nursing home will not take care of him because of liability problems, they can find none to take him. And the only hospital to take him is, (and I’m not sharing the name of the hospital). A hospital for acute care, but he spent three days there, two months ago and they neglected him to the point that he almost died.
Anyway, the hospital he is in now is supposed to be state of the art. But my husband has gotten sicker there. They have pretty much given up on taking care of him. He has TPN and feeding and he’s on a ventilator with the tracheostomy. My question is, how does the nursing care at home work? And I don’t have any money for out of pocket, so how can we pay for Intensive Care at Home for my husband who’s 71 years of age?
His original problem was throwing up that caused aspiration pneumonia. Since then, he has had three bleeds, more aspirations and kidney failure. With God’s miracle, his kidneys have been healed. He also has sepsis and viral meningitis. He is in a semiconscious state caused from inducing into a coma when he had his bleed and he swelled up five times his size in some areas. He almost died many times and by prayer and God’s grace, he is alive. I don’t believe in pulling any plugs and we’ll do whatever it takes to get him cured.
Please send info about nursing care and home care for Intensive Care at Home. What is the process? And I understand I would have to be there around the clock. I would like to get a nurse to come in periodically. But as far as I can see, there are no services to provide any really intensive care nurses besides Intensive Care at Home. Is there anything else you provide that is of importance? Does equipment get also provided? How does it work with the ambulance drive home? Will insurance pay? Will Medicare pay? Is it not just another hospital that you provide just at home?”
From Pamela
Thank you Pamela for writing in and for asking all the questions.
So in a nutshell, yes, we can send you 24-hour nurses at home for a situation like that. We’ve done it many times and we’re doing it every day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year in very similar situations, Home TPN, ventilation, tracheostomy at home, that is all possible and who’s going to pay for it?
Well, who’s going to pay for it now? Whoever’s going to pay for it now, they’re paying 5 to $6000 per bed day. Whoever is going to pay for it now will only pay about 50% at home. So, the question is answered automatically by cutting the cost of an intensive care bed by around 50%. So whoever is paying for it now will have an interest in paying only half of it. So, that gets the question out of the way, who’s going to pay for it? Because Intensive Care at Home is actually saving money and it’s saving a lot of money. We’re talking about 50% of money that is being saved. On top of that, the ICU will have an empty bed by him going home. It’s a win-win situation. And you have to have 24-hour nursing care at home, because if you don’t, patients die or go back to ICU, which defeats the purpose of having Intensive Care at Home in the first place.
And when I say people die, I’m not exaggerating. So for example, we have looked after clients over the years where funding was only made available for intensive care nurses for night shifts and the daytime was covered by family members or by people off the street i.e. support workers, personal care assistants basically looking after an intensive care patient.
And of course, those patients have passed away because those support workers, family members could not look after someone with a trache and a ventilator simply not within their scope of practice while looking after the ventilator and the trache is not even within the scope of practice of a general registered nurse.
So equipment is provided, we can organize all of the equipment. But you will be surprised, hospitals often have an interest in getting patients out and therefore they will also provide equipment, but even if they don’t, we can provide equipment and we provide the full facet whether it’s the nursing staff, whether it’s equipment, whether it is the 24-hour nursing roster, it’s all part of it. Whether it’s the advocacy to get to the funding, we are pretty much involved in the advocacy for every single client.
We have built so much intellectual property over the last decade in the Intensive Care at Home space that we can help you and guide you. It’s also great that you’re not giving up on your husband. You haven’t also mentioned that they want to pull the plug. You haven’t mentioned that.
Also you are saying you have to be there around the clock. No, you don’t. You don’t because once we have a team in your home and that you can trust, of course, it will take a little bit of time, then you can actually live your own life. You don’t have to be there around the clock. It all comes down to, creating a great team and creating the 24-hour Intensive Care at Home, nursing at home so that you can actually go shopping, go and visit other family members, whatever you would like to do so that you don’t have to be there 24-hours a day. So I really hope that answers your question, what can be done and how we can help you to get your dad home.
Now, currently, Intensive Care at Home, we are operating all around Australia and all major capital cities. We are an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), TAC (Transport Accident Commission) in Victoria, ICare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme in Queensland), as well as DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) approved community nursing service provider.
We also offer NDIS Specialist Support Coordination, Level 2 and Level 3. And if you are looking for an NDIS plan or if you don’t know how to get on the NDIS for funding for our service, please contact us. I can set you up with our NDIS support coordinators.
Also, if you are an NDIS Support Coordinator and you’re looking for nursing care for one of your NDIS participants, please contact us at intensivecareathome.com, and call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].
Now, you might be a patient in intensive care long-term, you might be watching this or you have a family member that’s patient in intensive care, just like Pamela wrote in her email today. We want to hear from you and we want to help you get your loved one home and we can help you with that. We’ve been doing it for the last 10 years.
And, if you’re at home already and you have insufficient support, maybe you have an organization that doesn’t show up unreliable, doesn’t really know what to do with the tracheostomy and a ventilator. They don’t have intensive care nurses. But if they don’t have intensive care nurses for a tracheostomy and a ventilator, that could be unfortunately a death sentence. I’m not exaggerating here because of the example that I’ve just given you a minute ago where patients on ventilation and tracheostomy have died at home because they didn’t have intensive care nurses. It’s negligent, not having intensive care nurses and you shouldn’t worry about the funding. Once again, we can help you with the funding.
We are now also engaging with private health insurances. We also have received funding through hospitals directly through departments of health. So please contact us if you need more information about any of that.
Now, and if you are a critical care nurse and you are watching this and you have a minimum of two years’ critical care nursing experience, we want to hear from you. We currently have vacancies in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. And we have worked for critical care nurses with a minimum of two years’ critical care nursing experience, ideally with the postgraduate critical care qualification.
Now, just for the records here, we are not an agency. We look for staff consistency. Our clients are looking for consistency. We don’t want critical care nurses using us as an agency because that’s not who we are. That’s not what we do. We are a service provider. We have a tailor-made solution for our clients. That means regular staff, regular teams with no staff turnover. That is what we’re striving for. So please only send in a genuine application if you can work if you’re interested in working for us by giving us regular availabilities, not canceling shifts. If you want to work for us be reliable, give us regular availabilities only then is it going to work. Our rates that we pay are very competitive? But obviously we have high, high expectations and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Now, also if you are an intensive care specialist and you’re watching this and if you are looking for a career change, we also want to hear from you. We are currently expanding our medical team. Furthermore, if you’re an intensive care specialist, you also have bed blocks in your ICU or you have tracheostomy patients sitting on your ward, we can help you with eliminating some of those bed blocks by taking patients home and improve their quality of life at home.
If you are a hospital executive, and you’re watching this, I know you’ve got bed blocks in your ICU and on your wards, again, we can help you by eliminating those bed blocks by providing a high-quality nursing service in the home and having no hospital free admissions.
Furthermore, if you’re a hospital executive, we’re also currently providing an ED emergency department bypass service for the Western Sydney local area health district. So we can provide the same for you, contact us if you want an emergency department bypass service.
The service that we provide is unmatched in Australia. We are the only service in Australia that has actually achieved third party and NDIS accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing. We have built the intellectual property. We have hundreds of years of critical care nursing experience employed in our service that we’re bringing into the community that is unmatched by any other service provider in Australia,
So, that’s it for today.
Once again, reach out to us with any questions or anything you need at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected]. Even if you’re in the U.K. or in the U.S., we have helped patients in the U.K. and in the U.S. by going home through our network through our consulting and advocacy. Please reach out to us as well.
Thank you so much for watching.
Now, if you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for Intensive Care at Home, but also for families in intensive care. Click the like button, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have from this video.
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.