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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 answering a question from a reader who says they feel like they’re being bullied, harassed, and intimidated by the intensive care team. And they have a loved one in intensive care after a heart attack.

Now, if you feel that way, you are feeling like what most of our clients feel. They’re seeking for help. They’re seeking for a different alternative when they feel bullied, harassed, and intimidated by the intensive care team. You always have to read between the lines, and you always have to think about what is it that the intensive care team is trying to achieve.

They’re trying to achieve the minimum time of stay in intensive care for a critically ill patient because the longer a patient stays, the more expensive it is for them to look after a patient. The less throughput they have, they make the most money. If they have lots of patients going in and going out, that’s how they can maximize their revenue. They also don’t want to be dealing with a family in ICU, long-term. Because as you can already see, the more questions that you ask, the more frustrated you get. And then it’ll be more difficult for them to deal with you.

So, why are intensive care teams negative and why are they trying to bully you or intimidate you? Again, they want to stay in control, and they are negative because they do not want you to have any expectations that your loved one may survive. They don’t want that because again, that’s how they can control the narrative by doing that.

If they belittle you or intimidate you and say your loved one is not going to survive this, they stay in control of the narrative. Because if they were promising you that your loved one will survive and then doesn’t, then you could potentially sue them. So, they want to stay in control of the narrative. They don’t want you to have any power, control, and influence, whatsoever. And that’s why they’re doing what they’re doing.

So, but the good news is here, intensivecarehotline.com, we can help you. We can help you with professional advocacy and consulting. And we can help you by asking all the right questions. We can help you with professional representation in these situations, when you’re talking to doctors, when you’re talking to nurses. We can review medical records. We can participate in family meetings  with the intensive care team. We’re doing this all day, every day.

So that’s how we can help because the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know their rights and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. And that’s where we can help you with, very, very fast.

That is my quick tip for today.

Start asking the right questions, get professional help and advocacy.

And if you have a loved one in intensive care, go and check out intensivecarehotline.com, call us on one of the numbers on the top of the website or send us an email to [email protected].

Also, have a look at our membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org.

Like this video, comment below what you want to see next, or what questions and insights you have from this video, click the notification bell, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates for families in intensive care. And share this video with your friends, families, or anyone that you know who can benefit from this video.

Also, if you need a medical record review, go and check out our site for medical record reviews.

Thank you for watching this video.

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

Also, I’m doing a livestream every Saturday at 8:30 PM, Eastern Time, and 5:30 PM, Pacific Time, which is 10:30 AM, Sunday morning in Sydney and in Melbourne. Watch out for that on my YouTube channel.

Take care for now.