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My Dad had a Stroke, Pneumonia & is in ICU, Ventilated with Tracheostomy, Can He Go Home?

Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from Intensive Care at Home 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 and medically complex patients at home, including Home TPN (total parenteral nutrition), Home IV potassium infusions, Home BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure), and CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) ventilation, as well as tracheostomy care for clients that are not ventilated. We also provide IV antibiotics at home and palliative care services at home. We also manage ports, central line, PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line, and Hickman’s lines at home as well.

Now, in today’s blog, I want to answer a question from a reader and it’s from Sherry actually who says,

 “Hi Patrik, my dad had a large stroke and it’s affected his right side. He is now in intensive care. He cannot manage his secretions and he ended up with pneumonia. He’s now ventilated with a tracheostomy for many weeks and he’s not making progress. I would like to bring him home. Is this possible?” Well, Sherry, I’m very sorry to hear about your dad’s situation, but the good news is, your dad can go home with our service, Intensive Care at Home. We have taken so many clients home in similar situations and it’s a win-win situation.

First off, your dad will improve his quality of life drastically at home, and you and your family will improve your quality of life as well because you’re probably living in ICU, and you’re probably staying there, 24 hours a day, to be with your dad and that’s not sustainable. So, by you going home, we can bring the ICU into your home, we bring the nurses, we bring the equipment into your home, and then your dad can be weaned off the ventilator at home in a much more patient and family-friendly environment. There’s no question about that.

So, how does it work? Obviously, we get everything ready including funding, who’s going to pay for it? We help you with that, like we have done with most of our clients and we’ll get you home. Then we set up your house, the room where your dad is in, equipment, bed, hoist, ventilators, spare tracheostomy tubes, suction machine, monitors, we will organize everything because we’ve done it many, many times successfully over the last 10 years. Then making sure your dad gets best care and treatment at home.

What is also important here, we operate on a no readmissions back to hospital policy. That is, of course, if it’s not planned, if your dad goes back as an outpatient for a planned procedure, I know that’s a different story, but generally speaking, we work on and we achieve no readmissions to hospital goal, because otherwise, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. We wouldn’t be Intensive Care at Home if our clients bounced back to intensive care all the time or going back to hospital.

Also, from a hospital perspective, you might be watching this, and you are an intensive care specialist or you might be an intensive care nurse, you might be a hospital executive watching this, you might be an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) Support Coordinator watching this thinking, “Ah! I know someone in a similar situation. We have those patients in our unit.” If you’re a doctor, nurse, or executive, or if you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator here in Australia, you might know of patients or some of your participants who might be stuck in ICU. Well, we are the solution for those patients that are stuck in ICU on a ventilator with a tracheostomy where there are no perceived option. Well, we are that option.

On a bigger picture level, we are creating a win-win situation. So, what do I mean by that? Intensive care beds are in short supply, they are in very short supply. Therefore, freeing up an intensive care bed is in the interest of the hospital, it’s in the interest of the intensive care unit. There, an ICU bed costs around $5,000 to $6,000 per bed per day. Intensive Care at Home is approximately half of that cost. Once again, it’s a win-win situation.

Furthermore, by freeing up the ICU bed, other patients that are in need of critical care can get treatment. We help taking the pressure off emergency departments by freeing up ICU beds. We help getting surgical waiting lists down by freeing up intensive care beds, so it’s a win-win situation. All around that we are providing, and again, whoever is funding it, we’re cutting the cost of an ICU bed by around 50%.

So Sherry, I hope that answers your question that this is absolutely doable and have a look at our case study section just to give you an idea of what is possible at home. A lot more is possible at home than you think there is, and also your dad’s quality of life will improve 10 times just by getting out of hospital and intensive care environment where patients, generally speaking, should only be there while they need critical care. Your dad still needs critical care, but he needs critical care at home because it’s no longer a conducive environment there.

Now, if you have a family member in a similar situation, talk to us. We can help you with the transition, we can help you with the funding, we can help you with the advocacy in this situation here.

If you’re a hospital watching this, if you’re doctors, nurses, hospital executive, we can also guide you through the process of funding, especially with the NDIS.

We can help you take your loved one home with critical care nurses, 24 hours a day, for patients that are on ventilation, tracheostomy, patients that are not ventilated but have a tracheostomy, adults and children that are on BIPAP, CPAP, Home TPN, IV potassium, IV magnesium, IV antibiotics, PICC line management, central line management, Hickman’s line management, port management, palliative care at home, as well as IV antibiotics.

Now, we are currently operating all around Australia in all major capital cities as well as in regional and rural areas. We are an NDIS approved service provider. We are a TAC (Transport Accident Commission) approved service provider in Victoria, iCare approved service provider in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme) approved service provider in Queensland, as well as a DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) approved service provider around the country. We have also received funding through public hospitals, departments of health, as well as through private health funds. So, please reach out to us if you need help. If you are in the U.S. or in the U.K. or in Canada, please reach out to us as well. We can help you there privately.

We are also providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Specialist Support Coordination, including specialist NDIS support coordination. If you need help with that, please reach out to us as well. We have an NDIS section on our website.

If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change, we want to hear from you. If you have worked for a minimum of two years in critical care ICU or ED, and if you have completed a postgraduate critical care qualification, we currently have jobs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga on the New South Wales, Victorian border in Bendigo, and in Country Victoria, as well as in Warragul in Country Victoria. We want to hear from you.

If you’re an intensive care specialist, we are currently expanding our medical team as well. If you’re an intensive care specialist and you have bed blocks in your ICU, which I know you have, then I encourage you to reach out to us as well. We can help you eliminate your bed blocks by taking your patients home, which also includes palliative care for some patients.

We are also providing an ED (emergency department) bypass service for the Western Sydney Local Area Health District. We send our critical care nurses into the home to avoid ED admissions. If your ED is bed blocked, we can help you eliminate those bed blocks by bypassing ED and by providing some ED services at home.

Once again, if you’re a hospital executive watching this, we also want to hear from you because again, we can help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU, probably on your respiratory ward and in ED, we want to hear from you as well.

If you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants or you’re looking for a nursing assessment for your participants, please reach out to us as well. We can help you.

All of that you get at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].

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

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care for now.