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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

Today’s quick tip is about, “best interest” meetings in intensive care. This is sort of something we see at the moment, especially with our clients in the U.K., but we also see it in other countries like in the U.S., in Canada, and also in Australia, where intensive care teams want to sit down with families and talk about what is “in the best interest” for their loved one.

And my advice is that whatever the intensive care team perceives as the best interest for your loved one doesn’t necessarily mean that you or your loved one would agree with that. Often intensive care teams might try and “sell” you on that end-of-life is in the best interest for your loved one.

Nine times out of 10 families in intensive care do not think that end of life is the “best interest” for their loved ones because they know their loved ones really well and they know that their loved ones want to live, and they want to try and fight and sometimes it’s really important that people can die with a fight. And I’m not here to judge this, I’m just putting it out there. What families in intensive care tell us all the time, all around the world.

So, whenever you hear “best interest”, you need to define best interest for yourself and for your loved one, especially if your loved one can’t talk for themselves. Maybe you had the conversation with your loved one, what they perceive as in the best interest for them. Maybe it’s even documented in a living will or in an advanced care directive what they perceive as best interest. But don’t get trapped into going to these meetings. Even just state very clearly what you know, what you want, and negotiate from that end. At the end of the day, nobody should be making decisions about life or death without getting the input and consent from you and your family, what really is in the best interest for your loved one.

Especially nowadays, when it comes to long-term ventilation or long-term intensive care patients where quality of life and, in some instances, quality of end of life can be achieved at home with services like Intensive Care at Home and you can find more information at intensivecareathome.com about that type of service.

Patients even when there is end of life in intensive care, from my experience, after having worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries, many patients want to approach the end of life at home. And with services like Intensive Care at Home, it’s possible. And it’s actually win-win, intensive care units benefit from that as well, because Intensive Care at Home can empty an ICU bed that is in high demand, and it’s also extremely expensive. With the service like Intensive Care at Home, we can actually cut the cost of an intensive care bed by 50% and have an empty bed in intensive care. It’s a win-win situation all around.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Also, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, and we answer all questions, intensive care and Intensive Care at Home related.

Also, if you need a medical record review, please contact us as well. We review medical records for families in intensive care in real time, and we also review medical records after intensive care, especially if you have unanswered questions or you need closure or you are suspecting medical negligence. In any case, it’s much better if we can review the medical records in real time, because then, you don’t need to worry about misinterpreting data, not getting all the information. You get it in real time interpretation.

That’s my quick tip for today.

Like the video, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home,  share the video with your friends and families, and comment below if you agree, disagree, what questions you have and insights from this video.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and Intensive Care at Home I’ll talk to you in a few days.

Take care.