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

Today’s tip is about tracheostomy and when your loved one is leaving intensive care and going to the ward just with a tracheostomy and not ventilated. So what you need to look out for when your loved one is not ventilated but has a tracheostomy and is leaving intensive care is making sure that the ward is actually equipped to look after your loved one.

So what does that mean? It means that a tracheostomy at the end of the day is an artificial stable airway. But if it becomes unstable, it’s critical and it could trigger death at the end of the day. So what you need to make sure that if your loved one goes on the ward with a tracheostomy, is making sure that the team on the ward has the skills to safely look after your loved one’s tracheostomy that includes suctioning, it includes giving oxygen, it includes giving humidified oxygen, it includes changing an inner cannula when needed, if that’s, if your loved one has an inner cannula. It includes giving nebulizers like normal saline, Ventolin or Atrovent  or any of those.

And it also includes to do an emergency tracheostomy change, if needed and also if your loved one goes to the ward with a tracheostomy, they also need to be now close to the nurse’s station and they need to have a one-on-one nurse to patient ratio.

So, and sometimes some ICU’s have what’s called an ICU liaison or outreach team, and they should be reviewed by the ICU team at least once a day until they know their loved one is safe.

That’s my tip for today. This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.