The 5 things you didn’t know INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME can do for your ICU

This blog post was first published at our sister site INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME, a specialized Intensive Home Care nursing service, focused on Quality of life and/or Quality of end of life for long-term mechanically ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy. The Home Care service provides a genuine alternative to a long-term stay in Intensive Care! For more information visit www.intensivecareathome.com.au

Hi it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREATHOME.com.au where we help long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy to improve their Quality of life and where we also help hospitals and Intensive Care Units to save money and resources, whilst providing Quality Care!

In last week’s blog I was talking about “Calls for changes in end of life care” as current practices in end-of-life care require major change to ensure more Australians experience “better” deaths, according to a panel of medical, ethical and legal experts. I also highlighted how INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME can ensure that people experience “better deaths” and choice of places where they want to die. If you want to read the article you can click on this link here http://intensivecareathome.com.au/calls-changes-end-life-care/

In this week’s blog I want to give you ”The 5 things you didn’t know INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME can do for your ICU”

Everybody who has worked in Intensive Care for a period of time, as well as long-term ventilated Adults or Children with Tracheostomy and their Families would agree that being a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy in Intensive Care is a challenging and frustrating situation for all parties involved.

The frustration and challenge of either being a Patient or a Family member in such a difficult situation is massive and I have seen Intensive Care teams getting frustrated as well, if they don’t see light at the end of the tunnel, when looking after long-term ventilated Adults or Children with Tracheostomy who have been in Intensive Care for long periods of time.

If you have been following this blog for a while you would also know that INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME has a solution to offer that is both, Patient and Family friendly and also offers a solution that is creating benefits for Intensive Care Units.

More importantly, there are “5 things you didn’t know INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME can do for your ICU”

1. Boost morale of your Intensive Care staff because everybody wins

Whenever there are long-term ventilated Adults or Children with Tracheostomy in Intensive Care, there generally comes a time when everybody in the ICU gets frustrated and “fed up” dealing with the Patient and their Families, because there is only so much an Intensive Care Unit can offer to a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy. By offering a Patient& Family friendly and Intensive Care Unit friendly solution and by taking a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy home, everybody wins and all parties involved generally agree that taking a long term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy home is the right thing and the only thing to do. By doing that you will also have your Intensive Care staff looking after more acutely unwell Patients who are in real need of an Intensive Care bed and everybody is generally happy. Patients, Families and the Intensive Care staff.

2. Make your Hospital and your Intensive Care Unit look good and stand out from the crowd

Very few Hospitals and very few Intensive Care Units in Australia so far offer tailor made solutions for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy. Again, by freeing up an expensive and scarce ICU bed, you can admit more acutely unwell Patients and you can focus on reallocating your precious resources towards more acutely unwell Patients. Again, everybody wins and you can make your Hospital and your Intensive Care Unit look really good and you can stand out from the crowd!

3. Help your Intensive Care Unit to be more flexible with your bed management

Depending on how many beds you have in your Intensive Care Unit, especially during busy periods, a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy can not only block a bed and take up precious resources that could be used for more acutely unwell Patients. I have also seen that some Intensive Care Units end up cancelling surgery or delay admissions from other areas, because a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy keeps blocking a bed. By having an empty bed available, you are just so much more flexible in managing your beds in your Intensive Care Unit and also meet the four hour target for your admissions from ED.

4. Be seen as innovative and as a leader in the field

As INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME is a relatively new concept in Australia, your Intensive Care Unit would be seen as a leader in the marketplace and as somebody who is embracing and driving change needed. Furthermore, you would also be a driver of real innovation in an area where previously people thought that Home Care is not an option, however successful models of Intensive Home Care for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy in Europe and the US have shown for more than 15 years now that change in Australian Intensive Care Unit is more than overdue.

5. Home Care for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy can give your budget a boost

Whether your Intensive Care Unit is Public, Private, for- profit or not-for-profit, the bottom line is the same. A bed in Intensive Care is very expensive and by going to a home care based model for long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy will give you a more cost effective option compared to an expensive long-term stay in Intensive Care.

What are your thoughts? Can you think of any other things that INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME can do for your ICU? Leave your comments on the blog.

If you want to discuss your needs and how we can help your Intensive Care Unit and your long-term ventilated Patients and their Families and if your organisation wants to free up ICU beds or if you simply have any questions, give me a call on 041 094 2230 or simply reply to this email.

This is Patrik Hutzel from www.intensivecareathome.com.au and I’ll see you again in another update next week.