Side effects of Long Term Ventilation at home and in Intensive care or LTAC

https://youtu.be/Dd242WG3f2A

Hi it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME where we provide tailor made solutions for long-term ventilated Adults & Children with Tracheostomies 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 the last blog I answered a question from one of our readers of our blog and the question last week was

HOME BEFORE HOSPITAL, DOES IT NEED TO BE LEGISLATED AS A RIGHT FOR PATIENTS?

You can check out last week’s episode by clicking on the link here.

In this week’s blog I want to make a comparison that most long-term ventilated Patients and their families can resonate with

Side effects of Long Term Ventilation at home and in Intensive care or LTAC

Anybody who has ever had a loved one in intensive care (or long-term acute care/LTAC) on long-term ventilation with tracheostomy knows about the undesired side effects.

Intensive care units also know about the side effects of having Patients in intensive care that are a slow ventilation and slow tracheostomy wean.

Let’s just take a Patient who has Guillan Barre syndrome and therefore requires mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy and a prolonged stay in intensive care for prolonged ventilation and tracheostomy weaning.

After I have worked in intensive care for 20 years in three different countries, I have seen a few Guillan Barre syndrome Patients that stayed in Intensive Care for ventilation and tracheostomy weaning for way too long.

Especially with a successful and proven concept such as INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME, intensive home care would have been a much better alternative.

So what are the side effects of weaning a Guillan Barre syndrome Patient off mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy in intensive care as opposed to weaning a Guillan Barre syndrome Patient off mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy at home?

I’m glad you’ve asked.

Let’s look at the side effects when weaning off mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy in Intensive Care (ICU) with Guillan Barre syndrome vs

When weaning off mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy in Intensive Care (ICU) with Guillan Barre syndrome	Weaning off mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy at home with Guillan Barre syndrome
The major side effect when Patients are getting weaned off ventilation with tracheostomy in intensive care is that neither Patients nor their families have any quality of life. Patients are stuck in a clinical and sterile environment and families spend day and night in intensive care to be with their loved one	The major side effects of being at home instead of intensive care with INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is that Patients and their families massively improve their quality of life, because INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides 24/7 intensive home care nursing. Therefore services are being provided where a Patient and their families want to be. By having ICU/PICU nurses coming to your home 24/7, Patients and their families can relax because ventilation and tracheostomy weaning can be done at home instead of intensive care! INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides a truly holistic environment for Patients and their families!
Side effect for families: They are spending day and night in intensive care or long-term acute care/LTAC to be with their loved ones and they therefore often lose the ability to work and they end up struggling financially! Furthermore, they spend less or no time with other crucial family members and they may even be far away from home! They therefore struggle financially and they often end up with marital stress, neglect other crucial family members such as their spouse, kids, parents etc…	When weaning Guillan Barre syndrome or other long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomy off ventilation at home by having ICU/PICU nurses coming into their home 24/7, families can relax because they are at home and not in intensive care or ICU. They can go back to work and support their families. We have plenty of case studies(188) where families were unable to work while they had their loved ones in ICU/PICU, whereas with our service INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME families were able to go back to work, supporting their families and earning a wage because their loved ones were taken care of at home instead of ICU/PICU
Side effect for funding bodies when dealing with long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies in intensive care: $5,000- $6,000 per bed day in intensive care, making intensive care beds the most expensive beds in a hospital	Side effects for funding bodies when looking after long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies at home: Reducing the cost of an intensive care bed by 50%
Side effect for intensive care units and hospitals when dealing with long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies: Bed blocks in intensive care leading to cancellations of surgery, delay in critical care admissions, bypassing emergency rooms by ambulances and therefore putting even more strains on an already overcrowded hospital system	Side effect for intensive care units and hospitals when dealing with long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies at home: Freeing up ICU/PICU beds and therefore making beds available for critically ill Patients that can’t be home (yet) Reduction in waiting lists for Patients in need of a critical care bed Freeing up staff and other resources such as equipment in intensive care

When weaning off mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy in Intensive Care (ICU) with Guillan Barre syndrome

Weaning off mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy at home with Guillan Barre syndrome

The major side effect when Patients are getting weaned off ventilation with tracheostomy in intensive care is that neither Patients nor their families have any quality of life. Patients are stuck in a clinical and sterile environment and families spend day and night in intensive care to be with their loved one

The major side effects of being at home instead of intensive care with INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is that Patients and their families massively improve their quality of life, because INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides 24/7 intensive home care nursing.

Therefore services are being provided where a Patient and their families want to be.

By having ICU/PICU nurses coming to your home 24/7, Patients and their families can relax because ventilation and tracheostomy weaning can be done at home instead of intensive care! INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides a truly holistic environment for Patients and their families!

Side effect for families: They are spending day and night in intensive care or long-term acute care/LTAC to be with their loved ones and they therefore often lose the ability to work and they end up struggling financially! Furthermore, they spend less or no time with other crucial family members and they may even be far away from home!

They therefore struggle financially and they often end up with marital stress, neglect other crucial family members such as their spouse, kids, parents etc…

When weaning Guillan Barre syndrome or other long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomy off ventilation at home by having ICU/PICU nurses coming into their home 24/7, families can relax because they are at home and not in intensive care or ICU.

They can go back to work and support their families.

We have plenty of case studies(188) where families were unable to work while they had their loved ones in ICU/PICU, whereas with our service INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME families were able to go back to work, supporting their families and earning a wage because their loved ones were taken care of at home instead of ICU/PICU

Side effect for funding bodies when dealing with long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies in intensive care:

$5,000- $6,000 per bed day in intensive care, making intensive care beds the most expensive beds in a hospital

Side effects for funding bodies when looking after long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies at home:

Reducing the cost of an intensive care bed by 50%

Side effect for intensive care units and hospitals when dealing with long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies:

Bed blocks in intensive care leading to cancellations of surgery, delay in critical care admissions, bypassing emergency rooms by ambulances and therefore putting even more strains on an already overcrowded hospital system

Side effect for intensive care units and hospitals when dealing with long-term ventilated Patients with tracheostomies at home:

Freeing up ICU/PICU beds and therefore making beds available for critically ill Patients that can’t be home (yet)

Reduction in waiting lists for Patients in need of a critical care bed

Freeing up staff and other resources such as equipment in intensive care

The list of side effects when it comes to long-term ventilation and tracheostomy either at home or in ICU/PICU is incomplete but you get the gist!

Whenever INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services are being provided at home for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies, everybody is winning and it therefore is a no-brainer!

Kind Regards

Patrik Hutzel

Critical Care Nurse consultant

Director

INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME

If you want to find out how we can help you to get your loved one out of Intensive Care including palliative care or Long-term acute care (also nursing home) or if you find that you have insufficient support for your loved one at home on a ventilator, if you want to know how to get funding for our service or if you have any questions please send me an email to [email protected] or call on one of the numbers below.

Australia/New Zealand +61 41 094 2230

USA/Canada +1 415-915-0090

UK/Ireland +44 118 324 3018

Also, check out our careers section here

www.intensivecareathome.com/careers

We are currently hiring ICU/PICU nurses for clients in the Melbourne metropolitan area, northern suburbs, Mornington Peninsula and in South Gippsland/Victoria.

We are an NDIS, TAC (Victoria) and DVA (Department of Veteran affairs) approved community service provider in Australia.

Also, have a look at our range of full service provisions here

https://intensivecareathome.com/services

We have also been part of the Royal Melbourne health accelerator program for innovative health care companies last year!

https://www.thermh.org.au/news/innovation-funding-announced-melbourne-health-accelerator