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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
TRACHEOSTOMY AND WEANING OFF THE VENTILATOR IN INTENSIVE CARE, HOW LONG CAN IT TAKE?
You can check out last week’s episode by clicking on the link here.
In this week’s blog I want to shine the spotlight on the numerous issues that go along with long-term Intensive Care when Patients require long-term life support and/or long-term high acuity care for chronic conditions.
Therefore in this week’s blog I want to discuss
If you want good nursing care in your own home instead of Intensive Care, you have to be brave enough to point out what can be improved in Intensive Care!
Hundreds of Patients(adults& children) in Intensive Care in Australia and dozens of Patients at home on life support already need INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services instead of staying in Intensive Care for either way too long than necessary or on the other hand get sent home with inadequate or inappropriate support or no support at all!
Intensive Care Units also need to stop to inappropriately issue NFR(Not for resuscitation) or DNR(Do not resuscitate) orders for Patients on long-term life support because they can’t see any perceived alternatives for those Patients.
Premature and inappropriate NFR/DNR orders, as well as premature “withdrawal of treatment” decisions that are “framed” as being “in the best interest” of a critically ill Patient, without giving Patients and their families a genuine choice and a genuine alternative to a long-term stay in Intensive and/or the option of an end of life situation at home instead of Intensive Care are highly inappropriate and highly unethical from my point of view.
Related:
I don’t say this lightly and I also need to explain that after nearly 20 years Intensive Care Nursing as well as Intensive Home Care nursing experience in three different countries I have seen my fair share of different approaches but I therefore also know what solutions that work.
The solution that works for long-term Intensive Care Patients(adults& children) is INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME nursing, because we bring the Intensive Care nursing skills into a client’s home and we improve our clients quality of life whilst reducing the cost of an Intensive Care bed by more than 50%!
Giving people choice and the right to live in a first world country need no further explanation as far as I’m concerned.
Furthermore, legislation in Victoria(Australia) is changing in March 2018 and it’ll give health consumers a choice when it comes to end of life decision making. The legislation will be more health consumer focused and will give people a choice and it will move away from the current “one size fits all” approach that most Intensive Care Units use.
For more information about the upcoming changes in Victoria please click the link here
The Patients and their families that I’m talking about are extremely vulnerable individuals who are reliant on 1:1 specialised Intensive Home nursing care because they require tracheostomy care, mechanical ventilation, non-invasive ventilation like BIPAP/CPAP, Home TPN, seizure management and/or unstable airway management even if they don’t require mechanical ventilation.
The majority of Intensive Care health professionals still have limited understanding what is possible in a home care environment, because they still think the only “exit doors” for an Intensive Care Patient is either to go to a hospital ward or to die…
What a limited mindset and what limited thinking… in the 21st century… especially since there is enough evidence here in Australia as well as in Germany that INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is a successful model of care that provides win-win situations for all stakeholders!
Every individual whether adult or child in Intensive Care requiring long-term life support has their own life story, their own personality, their own life goals and each individual in such a situation requires tailor made solutions that are applicable to their own individual situation.
And those solutions for the individual and their family are not available in Intensive Care. The solutions are available when we bring our INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME nursing skills into our client’s homes, that’s where we can make the biggest difference!
Here at INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME we are extremely proud that we can enable our clients such tailor- made solutions to improve their quality of life and in some instances quality of end of life.
We are also extremely proud that we consistently and predictably keep our clients out of ICU/PICU because our staff embrace the concept of INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME and they live and breathe it every single day!
The reality is that most of the Intensive Home Care nursing care delivered is happening behind closed doors, therefore it is difficult for other Patients, families as well as Intensive Care professionals to understand how it is being delivered on a day by day basis.
Most Intensive Care health professionals still live in the dark ages and they have no understanding that sending ICU/PICU/NICU nursing skills to a client in the home who is life support dependent is making all the difference to their and their family’s quality of life!
In fact, we are the first accredited INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME nursing service provider in Australia who sends ICU nurses in people’s home to maintain quality of life for our clients on life support!
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 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 Melbourne, Sunbury and in South Gippsland/Victoria.
We are an NDIS, TAC(Victoria) and DVA(Department of Veteran affairs) approved community service provider in Australia.
We have also been part of the Royal Melbourne health accelerator program earlier this year!
https://www.thermh.org.au/news/innovation-funding-announced-melbourne-health-accelerator
https://www.melbournehealthaccelerator.com/
Thank you for tuning into this week’s blog.
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME and I see you again next week in another update!