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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care. So yesterday I had a client call me and they said that their dad had a tracheostomy after about 15 days in ICU and they consented to the tracheostomy and within hours of having done the tracheostomy, the ICU told the family that their dad needs to go to LTAC the next day, the very next day and they haven’t even been told about that before.

So, If you have done any research at all, you would have heard me talk about that you should never go to LTAC in the first place and that you need to be prepared when it comes to doing a tracheostomy. A tracheostomy has that time and their place and I’m not opposed to it after having worked in intensive care for 20 years, I know tracheostomies have their time and their place. But what you need to be prepared, you need to be prepared about the next steps. And it’s completely inappropriate of course, if an ICU is setting you or your dad needs to leave tomorrow and go to an LTAC.

They need to be preparing you. You need to look at the LTACs. You need to feel comfortable of making that move and also you shouldn’t move a critically ill patient, that’s very disruptive and it can cause complications. It can cause setbacks. Think about continuity of care. You shouldn’t move an ICU patient to another facility potentially hours away or half an hour away, it’s just inappropriate.

And again, LTACs can’t look after intensive care patients but that’s what often happens and it’s a money saving exercise for health insurances. And it’s also an exercise for ICU to empty their beds as quickly as possible and get more profitable intensive care patients and it’s not about clinical need.

So how can you manage the clinical need for your family member if they end up with a tracheostomy? Well, number one, they can stay in ICU and we have certainly helped many clients to achieve that and safe in ICU until they can be weaned off the ventilator. Or another option is, intensive care at home.

Intensive care at home can look after ventilated patients at home with a tracheostomy and you can find more information at intensivecareathome.com and also if your loved one is leaving intensive care and goes home with intensive care at home, you’ll be looked after by intensive care nurses 24 hours a day and it’s very safe and it cuts the cost of an intensive care bed by 50% and it’s a very safe option.

So, that’s my tip for today. This is Patrik Hutzel of intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.