Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com where we provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies, where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units whilst providing quality services for our clients and families which includes medically complex patients at home, including Home TPN (total parenteral nutrition), Home IV potassium infusions, Home BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure), CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), as well as IV antibiotics. We also provide services at home for clients that have a tracheostomy but are not ventilated. We provide services for port management, central line management, PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line management, Hickman’s line management.

Now, in today’s blog post, I want to answer a question from Pamela who says,

“Hi Patrik,

My husband has been in ICU for over 4 months and will be, and I would like to take him home, but he needs TPN feeding, and he has a tracheostomy. I also want to let people know who are listening to this, that kidney failure can be reversed in hospital as my husband had no kidney function and has dialysis and diuretics together for a couple of weeks and lots of prayer. Now, his kidneys are working perfect. He does have problems from the drug-induced coma they put him in, and he had three internal bleedings and pneumonia and lung infections.

Now, after all this time in ICU, as you can imagine, my husband is depressed, and he has no quality of life, and he wants to go home as quickly as possible. To add on to that, me and my family, we have no quality of life because we’re spending day and night in ICU to be with my husband, and we really want to get him home as quickly as possible.

From, Pamela.

Please let me know how you can make that happen.”

Well, Pamela, that’s great question, and I’m very sorry to hear about your husband’s situation who’s been in hospital for over 4 months in ICU. I mean, that’s terrible.

If the TPN and the tracheostomy is keeping him there, know that there is help at hand. I mean, that’s what we do, tracheostomy care at home as well as TPN care at home. It’s bread and butter for us. We send basically the critical care nurses into the home, 24 hours a day, and bring the intensive care into your home so that your husband can leave intensive care and have quality of life at home. I presume he’s got a central line, or a PICC line, or a Hickman’s line, or a port for the TPN.

If he has a tracheostomy, he needs a nebulizer, he needs a humidifier, he might need some oxygen, he might need a cough assist, he needs potentially a hoist, he needs a hospital bed with an air mattress, suction machine, monitor, all of that can be provided, there’s no issue there. We will help you create a team that can look after your husband, 24 hours a day.

From a funding perspective, an intensive care bed costs $5,000 to $6,000 per bed day. Going home with Intensive Care at Home costs about 50% of that, and what we do is when we select the staff, it’s obviously very important that we send you the right staff because you want people in your home that you feel comfortable with, but that also have the skills, the knowledge how to look after your husband at home, that is really important.

So, in terms of who’s going to pay for it, now, we are operating all around Australia, in all major capital cities as well as in regional and rural areas. We are an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved service provider. We are also a TAC (Transport Accident Commission) approved service provider in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme) in Queensland, as well as a DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) all around the country. We have also received funding through public hospitals, through the departments of health, as well as private health funds. So, again, if you think about the logistics, an ICU bed is $5,000 to $6,000 per bed day, whoever is going to pay for it saves 50% of the cost of an ICU bed, so it makes perfect economic sense.

But more importantly, it makes perfect sense from a patient family and holistic point of view to continue care at home rather than in ICU. If it’s possible and you’ve mentioned your husband is medically stable so he can go home with our service, Intensive Care at Home. But obviously, everything needs to be organized first, which is funding, equipment, and staff. We’ve done this so many times, we can put it all in place for you as well in a situation like that.

I’m sure your husband is looking forward to leaving ICU. I’m sure you and your family are looking forward to no longer be stuck in an ICU ward, and finally go home, and have peace of mind, have more control over the over the days that your husband is having and have more say in his care.

We make sure that we work around your preferences and work with you with your preferences, how you and your husband want things done. We make sure we select the staff that you want, and that you are comfortable with when going home.

I also encourage you to have a look at our case studies so you can see how it all works, but in a nutshell, it’s time to ask them to go home  and we can make that happen for you. So, reach out 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 have a family member in a similar situation, talk to us. We can help you with transition, we can help you with the funding, we can help you with the equipment, with the staffing. We can help you with the advocacy in a situation like that because you will need advocacy to make this happen.

 

We provide critical care nurses at home, 24 hours a day, for patients, once again, that are on ventilation with 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, central line, Hickman’s line management, port management, as well as palliative care at home.

We are also providing an emergency department bypass service for the Local Area Western Sydney Health District, and we can do the same for your hospital, sending our critical care nurses into the community to avoid ED admissions and avoid ED overflow.

Now, like I mentioned, we are currently operating all around Australia, in all major capital cities and we are NDIS approved, TAC approved in Victoria, NIISQ approved in Queensland, iCare approved in New South Wales, as well as DVA all around the country. We have received funding through public hospitals, departments of health, as well as through private health funds. If you’re in the U.S. or in the U.K. and you need help, we can help you there privately as well. Please reach out to us.

We are also providing Level 2 and Level 3 Specialist Support Coordination, if you need help with the NDIS, we’re also providing NDIS nursing assessments.

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 or pediatric ICU, 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, as well as Country Victoria, as well as in Warragul in Country Victoria. We absolutely want to hear from you.

If you are an intensive care specialist, we are currently expanding our medical team as well. If you are 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 and manage your bed blocks by taking your patients home safely, which includes palliative care for some patients.

Like I mentioned, we are also providing an ED bypass services, and if you want that for your hospital to bypass ED by sending critical care nurses into people’s home to avoid ED readmissions, we can help you with that 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.

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.

Thanks for watching.

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

Take care for now.