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If you want to know how to write an effective email to hospital executive when you have a loved one in intensive care to get best care and treatment for your loved one, stay tuned because I’ve got news for you.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I have another quick tip for families in intensive care today.

So, with our consulting and advocacy at intensivecarehotline.com for families of critically ill patients in intensive care, we help our clients to write letters for hospital executives to get better outcomes and get better care and treatment for their loved ones in intensive care.

Today, I just want to read out one of those emails that we’ve helped our client to write and sometimes we write it just together to get better care and treatment for their loved ones.

I’ll just read it out as it is, and you can use at your own disposal. You just got to replay the video again because I know after having worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years and where I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com.

We have saved many lives for our families in intensive care. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com. You can verify it on our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com, and we have helped hundreds of members and clients in intensive care.

Again, you can use this email as is because I know for a fact, I’m talking to families in intensive care every day internationally. These emails get results so you can use it. Many of the situations that you are dealing with are very similar to what we are dealing with. Most families in intensive care have the same problems and issues.

So, let’s get to it. I’m not going to mention any names here of course. I’ll just read it out without any names.

“Dear hospital CEO,

I’m writing to you regarding my mother. She has been an inpatient in your ICU since the 31st of October 2023. Unfortunately, the care and treatment that she and we as a family have been receiving has not been up to our expectations. This is in light of the fact that I have written to you before and many issues still remain unresolved.

Whilst our mother has significantly improved, the reality is that if it hadn’t been for our advocacy, she potentially would have passed away by now because the intensive care team has been pretty adamant from the start that she should be having comfort care and that she wouldn’t have any “quality of life” if she was to survive. The reality is that she has survived so far, and we believe that with ongoing good care and treatment, she will improve her quality of life.

However, we are very concerned that in this hospital, she’s not getting the right care and treatment. Here is why, let me explain.

First off, while she was in ICU, there have been delays in her MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan initially and she was left undiagnosed while she wasn’t waking up. To make matters worse, we were told that my mother has brain stem damage even though a neurologist had only done a physical exam. Our research has clearly shown that brain stem damage can only be diagnosed with an MRI scan of the brain, CT (Computed Tomography) scan of the brain with an EEG (electroencephalography), or a combination of all of the above, and we have linked to some research there. Clearly, we as a family have been misled that could have led to the death of our mother because of the way her diagnosis has been positioned without providing any evidence.

We very much feel disrespected and judged by our wish to continue careful treatment for our mother, even though the intensive care team has been pushing for comfort care and hospice, which in essence would have killed our mother if we had given in.

Furthermore, the constant inappropriate pushing and bullying from the intensive care for a PEG tube and our decision not to proceed has been a nuisance to say the least. We have done our own research, and our mother is perfectly safe with the nasogastric tube and not having a PEG tube.

We feel like the push for a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube from the hospital is only to send our mother to an LTAC (long Term Acute Care). 

facility which we simply don’t want. Our research has shown that patient outcomes in LTACs are not up to our expectations. Therefore, we do believe that this hospital needs to take responsibility to help our mother to get best care and treatment and therefore best outcomes.

However, we have ongoing concerns that with my mother moving to another area out of the step-down ICU, the hospital continues to be negligent and doesn’t have my mother’s best interest at heart. Here is why, in all this time since the 31st of October, my mother has not been mobilized in getting out of bed. There should be absolutely no reason why my mother can’t get out of bed with the help of the doctors, nurses, and physical therapists as she has no fractures, she’s hemodynamically stable. Therefore, she should be getting mobilized every day. By not mobilizing her, she’s getting deconditioned and weaker every day.

Many studies in hospitals have shown that not mobilizing patients leads to complications that could lead to serious injuries or death. Other risks by not mobilizing my mother is that she will end up with contractions of her joints and that she’ll end up with pressure sores. Should she end up with contractions or pressure sores because the hospital chooses not to mobilize her, we will deem that as medical negligence and we will reserve the right to consult our legal team about any medical negligence.

Lastly, yesterday, my mother had the tracheostomy dislodged and it looks like a medical emergency was called. Now, my concern is that she was prematurely discharged from ICU into another area like the step-down ICU initially where the hospital may not have the skills and expertise to look after a tracheostomy. When tracheostomy patients leave intensive care, not all nursing staff in other areas are tracheostomy competent and we are concerned that might be the case in my mother’s situation.

Moreover, we have asked for a meeting with the medical director, and we are not allowed to have an advocate over the phone. Once again, what is it that the hospital has to hide by bringing in an advocate? What is it that an advocate can’t hear or see?

We are also getting very tired of vague answers to our very direct questions. Once again, the hospital seems to have things to hide. 

Last but not least, we will still expect the hospital to help us transfer our mother to another hospital, the hospital of our choice and we expect this to happen in the next few days by the hospital reaching out to other hospitals to help us getting our mother to a hospital of our choice.

We have also picked up that our mother is getting Ativan, given that Ativan is sedation, a tranquilizer and the benzodiazepine and given that she’s not fully alert, we also would like to have the Ativan stopped so our mother can have every chance to wake up as best as she can without any tranquilizers or benzodiazepines going into her system.”

So, this letter or email to the hospital executive has not been ignored and the intensive care team at the time was changing their tune, starting to mobilize the lady, and so forth.

Now, what is really important here as well is that in this situation, the tracheostomy got this lodged when the client’s mother moved on to a hospital ward or hospital floor. Now, here’s the problem with that. For someone with a tracheostomy, tracheostomy has to be looked after by intensive care nursing staff or critical care nursing staff, not by ward nursing staff Managing a tracheostomy is an intensive care and critical care nursing skill, not a ward nursing skill.

Now, this is actually evidence-based and here is why. So, when you look on our sister website, intensivecareathome.com, you will see that there is a section with the Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines. When you look at the Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines, they clearly say that only critical care nurses with a minimum of two years critical care nursing experience need to look after tracheostomy plus/minus ventilation at home It’s not any different in a hospital. You can’t really leave intensive care with our intensive care nurses looking after a tracheostomy patient, one-on-one, 24 hours a day, people have died because of this approach.

So, I’m not surprised that our client at the time was reporting that the tracheostomy got dislodged on a hospital ward. Clearly, if there are no ICU nurses around, of course, the tracheostomy gets dislodged, makes perfect sense.

So, use this letter as a guide if you want to write a letter. I mean, we can help you, that’s part of our consulting and advocacy, what we do to help clients get results, get real results. Like I said, have a look on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com or have a listen to our intensivecarehotline.com podcast with client interviews.

Now, like I said, we have helped hundreds of members and clients over the years, and that is why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link or if 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, intensive care related.

In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I’ve personally written and recorded and all the information and access to me and my team will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence always, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf or with you. And if I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one, critically ill in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do 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 simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

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 this video with your friends and families, comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on a show and you will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my email newsletter at intensivecarehotline.com or if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care for now.