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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 at home, and where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units at home whilst providing quality care for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies at home, otherwise medically complex adults and children at home, which includes home BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), home CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), and home tracheostomy care for adults and children that are not ventilated, Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), home IV potassium infusions, home IV magnesium infusions, as well as home IV antibiotics. We also provide port management, central line management, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line management, as well as Hickman’s line management, and we also provide palliative care services at home.

We’re also sending our critical care nurses into the home for emergency department bypass services as we have done so successfully in the past for the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, their in-touch program.

In essence, we are saving 50% of the cost of an ICU bed and we’re saving roughly $2,000 for the cost of an ED admission. So, significant cost savings but also significant improvement in quality of life for patients and for families.

Today, I want to answer a question from one of our readers, Sylvia who says,

“Hi Patrik,

I desperately need your help. My 86-year-old father had surgery to remove his kidney due to cancer. The cancer was localized to the kidney. It had not spread, and they were able to get all out.

My father did well during the surgery and the doctor was planning on discharging him home in a few days. However, two days after the surgery, he developed pneumonia. He was intubated for three weeks. He was not able to be extubated, and they performed a tracheostomy.

Now, almost 6 months later, he’s still in ICU unable to get off the ventilator. Our family is under so much stress. We have suffered from both physical and psychological distress. We don’t know what to do to help our father.

Recently, he has shown some minor improvements. They placed a pigtail catheter in his lungs because they were constantly filling up with fluids. However, they have not removed any fluid from his left lung in two weeks and very little from his right. However, although he makes urine, they have started dialysis three times a week because his creatinine is high.

We want our father weaned off the ventilator. However, when they do the breathing trials and place him on CPAP, his respiration becomes too high, and they discontinue and abort the trial. Either his breathing rate becomes too high, or he develops a bacteria and is not able to do the breathing trials.

This is the hardest thing our family has gone through. We are a very close family, and we are devastated to see our father and our mother, the beloved husband lying in a hospital bed for nearly 6 months not knowing how to help him. It is so frustrating. Our mother cries herself to sleep each night. She misses him so much. Prior to the surgery, my father was mobile, went on walks every day, and now he is lying in a hospital bed. Very depressed. Please help us.

From, Sylvia.”

Well, Sylvia, thank you so much for sharing your almost desperate situation with me but the good news is there is help at hand.

Your dad sounds like a great candidate for going home with Intensive Care at Home, especially after six months. There’s no need to stay in ICU for 6 months with Intensive Care at Home. Even with the dialysis, we can do the dialysis at home. There are also other companies that can do the dialysis at home, that just come in for the dialysis whilst we do the nursing care, look after the ventilator, the tracheostomy, and look after the activities of daily living for your dad.

It’s terrible to see that some ICUs still haven’t seen the light of the day with Intensive Care at Home, even though we’ve been in business now since 2012 and we’ve proven our concept beyond the shadow of a doubt.

So, even with a pigtail catheter that can be looked after at home as well, there’s nothing really that stops your dad from going home.

But what might stop your dad from weaning off the ventilator is not going home because ICU just is not a conducive environment for any recovery. ICU is not a good environment for your family’s recovery because I can see your family is living in ICU, day and night, and is clutching at straws, so to speak.

I’m glad you found us because now it’s time to take the first step to move him home and get him home and organize the funding. The hospital would have an interest in cutting the cost of an ICU bed by 50%. The funding body would have an interest in cutting the cost of an ICU bed by 50%. Once again, it’s all about creating a win-win situation.

You and your family have an interest in improving the quality of life for your dad. You and your family have an interest in improving the quality of life for you as a family because it’s not sustainable staying in ICU, day and night, and living in ICU, day and night. That is just not and how it works.

You will see that once your dad is at home and there is stability. You will see that your dad will improve mentally, your family will improve mentally. Then, you will see that things can only improve from there most likely because being in a home care environment makes all the difference.

So, I hope that helps, please reach out to us so we can help you with the advocacy. Please reach out to us again directly at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].

And then, we can take the first steps about organizing and advocating for the funding, which won’t be difficult because it’s 50% of the cost of an ICU bed. It’s a win-win situation. Then we can organize the equipment, create a team, and get your dad home and bring the intensive care into the home. Makes a lot more sense.

Now, with Intensive Care at Home, we are currently operating all around Australia in all major capital cities and in all regional and rural areas. We are an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved service provider in Australia, TAC (Transport Accident Commission) and WorkSafe in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme in Queensland), as well as the DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) all around the country. Our clients also receive funding through public hospitals, private health funds as well as departments of health.

We are the only provider in Australia in 2024 that has achieved third-party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing. No other provider has created this much intellectual property for Intensive Care at Home nursing in the community than we have. We are therefore in a position to employ hundreds of years of intensive care nursing experience in the community combined. Once again, no other provider brings that level of expertise into the community.

We’re also providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination. Our NDIS Support Coordinator, Amanda Riches in Victoria, as well as Rosie Hammer in New South Wales, have a wealth of knowledge and their team and I’ll put a link towards a video where I did an interview with Amanda a while ago. We’re also providing TAC case management.

And if you’re at home already and you realize that you’re on a ventilator, tracheostomy, BIPAP, CPAP, Home TPN, and whatever the case may be, and you realize that your current setup is not working, that you go back to ICU, that your team is fragmented, you have no cohesiveness, you have no clinical governance, please reach out to us as well because we know that there are many vulnerable clients in the community who are at risk of dying.

Many clients have died in the community on ventilation, tracheostomy, sometimes even without a ventilator and just a tracheostomy without ICU nurses, 24 hours a day. That is evidence-based that you need ICU nurses, 24 hours a day, and those ICU nurses need to have worked in ICU for a minimum of two years, only that makes it safe. Otherwise, your life is at risk and it’s evidence based when you look at the Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines on our website, I will link towards that.

You might also be stuck in hospital like Sylvia’s dad, in a similar situation, please reach out to us as well at intensivecareathome.com.

If you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator watching this and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, please reach out to us as well or if you’re looking for funding for more nursing care for your participants and you don’t know how to go about it or what evidence to provide, I also encourage you to reach out to us. We can help you with the advocacy and we also provide NDIS specialist nursing assessments done by critical care nurses and legal nurse consultants.

If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change, we’re currently offering jobs for critical care nurses in the home in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga, in Bendigo, in Victoria, as well as in Warragul, in Victoria, and in Geelong. If you have worked in critical care for a minimum of two years pediatric ICU, ED, and you have already completed the postgraduate critical care qualification, we will be delighted to hear from you.

I have a disclaimer though because we are offering a tailor-made solution for our clients, which includes regular staff, our clients will have the same staff coming over and over again because they are very vulnerable and so special.

It’s all about building those critical relationships with our clients and with our team members and having regular and stable teams. That means if you’re looking for agency work where you can come and go, working for Intensive Care at Home may actually not be the right fit for you on a long-term basis because our clients want the same staff coming back over and over again. So, it’s all about building critical relationships with our clients and their families and we want to build relationships with you as well, of course, so that it remains a win-win situation.

If you are an intensive care specialist or an ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We’re currently expanding our medical team as well. We can also help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU and ED for your long-term patients or for your regular readmitting patients. We’re here to help you take the pressure off your ICUs and ED beds. In most cases, you won’t even pay for it.

If you’re a hospital executive watching this and you have bed blocks in your ICU, in ED, and respiratory wards, please reach out to us as well. We can help you there.

Lastly, if you’re in the U.S. or in the U.K. and you’re watching this and you need help, we can help you there privately.

Once again, contact us at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].

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

I also do a weekly YouTube live  where I answer your questions live on the show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you’re a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to our email newsletter at intensivecareathome.com.

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.