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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 an email from Andrew who says,

“Hi Patrik,

My dad’s been in ICU and now in LTAC for two months. They keep saying end-of-life care, they are not listening, not giving status of reports, not doing physical therapy, etc. This is horrible. What would you advise?

From, Andrew.”

Thank you, Andrew for writing in and I’m so sorry to hear about what your dad is currently dealing with.

Obviously, for anyone watching this, this is specifically for our audience in the U.S. because LTACs uniquely exist only in the U.S. LTAC stands for long-term acute care. In a nutshell, in the U.S., many intensive care patients that end up often prematurely with the tracheostomy, and the PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube get shipped to LTAC; not for clinical care, it is simply designed to save money. The clinical care in most LTACs is abhorrent and I have made countless videos about this on my channel.

Anyway, so let’s break this down. If you had come to me Andrew, a few weeks ago or a couple of months ago, I would have said no way should your dad go to LTAC, and let’s put proven strategies in place to keep him in ICU because that’s what we do. We advocate for families in intensive care successfully, that goes without saying because we have proven strategies to get outcomes for patients and families in intensive care. So, if you had come to us and worked with us and said, “Hey, I don’t want my dad to go to LTAC.” We would have made that happen for you with our proven consulting advocacy strategies. We’ve been doing it for many years, but we can’t turn back the tide.

Now, he is in LTAC, and they keep saying end-of-life care. Well, why do they say end-of-life care? That’s number one. You’re also saying they’re not listening. Well, I’m not surprised that they are not listening. Just by the way, we’ve just helped another client to go from LTAC back to ICU, once again, because we successfully advocated, and we successfully put strategies in place how to get a patient back from LTAC to ICU. So, if you need help there, Andrew, you know where we are.

Anyway, if they’re not giving you the status of reports, I presume you are the power of attorney for your dad, but they have to give you access to the reports. It’s not a privilege, it is a right for you to have access to the medical records.  Also, given that they’re not doing physical therapy and talk about end-of-life care, my advice here would be that you make a formal complaint to the top i.e. hospital executive. Once again, we’ve done that many times for our clients successfully with very good outcomes because we know how to advocate and we know what the arguments are. Also, we’ve never had a client who can’t get access to the medical records, never ever, as long as they can follow the advice and as long as they can follow strategies that we have in our arsenal. So, only then will things change for you.

Now, also end-of-life care, if you are a regular viewer of my channel, you will know by now end-of-life care is not a decision that the hospital can make unilaterally. It’s not a decision that they can make without patient or family consent, it’s very simple. So, don’t even go down that track, don’t even entertain the argument or entertain a discussion around that, you don’t have to.

So, this is my advice, make a formal complaint and we can help you with that by writing the emails to the hospital executive. We’ve got email templates that we use. A hospital executive cannot ignore the complaints of a patient or a family.

If you’re watching this, do not go to LTAC. It’s as simple as that. Do not go to LTAC under any circumstances and reach out to us if you need help, how to make it happen so that your dad or mom or whoever it is doesn’t go to LTAC. We’ve just successfully worked with the client that we help to stay in ICU, and they’ve come off the ventilator that there’s really no need to go to LTAC. LTACs are not even the better version of a nursing home, it’s not even that.

So, because we get so many questions from families in intensive care, that’s why we have created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecarehotline.com. Go there and click on the membership link and you can become a member there or you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly. In the membership, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email, and we answer all questions in intensive care related. In the membership, you also have access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos. They are exclusive for members only and they will help you steer this difficult territory that is intensive care and it’ll help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence. I’ve written the eBooks and I’ve recorded the videos for our members.

I have worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. I have been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care very successfully since 2013, and you can here at intensivecarehotline.com.

You can look up our testimonials at intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the testimonial section, we have saved lives. We also have client interviews on our podcast section where it’s verified by clients that we have saved lives with our consulting and advocacy.

Regardless of what intensive care teams want, we have helped keeping patients in ICU and not letting them go to LTAC just as Andrew pointed out in his email today that it was a mistake going to LTAC. We can do the same for you.

I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly, but I also talk to doctors and nurses directly and you see that in just a conversation with them, the dynamics would change in your favor because then intensive care teams know you have someone on your team that understands intensive care inside out as much as they do and that they can’t hide and that they will be held to account.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. I strategize with you what strategies to use that once again, you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that your loved one gets best care and treatment.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can have a second opinion in real time. We also offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

All of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.com.

If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care. Click the like button, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.

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