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

So, I’ve just come off a call with a client who has their mother in intensive care on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. She had a stroke about four or five months ago. She had a tracheostomy, had a PEG tube, was sent to LTAC after about a month in ICU, and bounced back from LTAC to ICU within a few days, just as we have witnessed probably hundreds of times now over many years, especially for our U.S. clients because LTAC is very unique to the United States, they don’t exist in other countries.

So, just like we’ve warned before, never ever let your loved one go into LTAC (Long Term Acute Care). This is another sign here, where again, the client leaves ICU, goes to LTAC, and bounces back within less than a week with many, many complications because when a ventilated patient goes out of ICU and goes into LTAC where there’s no critical care trained nurses looking after ventilated and tracheostomy patients, disasters are waiting to happen.

When someone is ventilated and having a tracheostomy, they need critical care nurses, 24 hours a day, not staff in LTAC where there are registered nurses that are not intensive care trained. They have no ventilator or tracheostomy experience or even worse, there are LNPs (Licensed Nurse Practitioners) employed. There are no or very few doctors on site, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Now, this time around, the hospital wants to send our client’s mother get back to LTAC, and the very same LTAC, as a matter of fact. The family is obviously opposed to that because they’ve seen last time what happened. Thankfully, they have learned from their previous experience because they had no idea not to give consent to a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube. They just followed blindly and they were running towards the fire only realizing that when their mother was in LTAC, how bad it was, and then she bounced back into ICU within no time. I have made countless videos about this that patients who go to LTAC bounce back into the ICU in no time, and this is exactly what’s happened here.

So, now the ICU is pushing again, wants to do the same thing again. You know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, and this is where this family is really at crossroads. Again, why would they let their loved one go back to LTAC where it ended up in a disaster last time?

So, what to do? Well, what to do in the first place is if you have a loved one in a similar situation, never ever give consent to a PEG tube because the PEG tube opens the doors for LTAC to take those patients. Usually, LTACs cannot take patients with a nasogastric tube instead of a PEG tube. There are exceptions to the rules and some LTAC will take patients with a nasogastric tube, but most don’t. That should also tell you everything you need to know about their skill level. Their skill level is really poor. If they can’t look after a nasogastric tube, that also means they’re not skilled in looking after a ventilator and a tracheostomy.

If they can’t look after a nasogastric tube, again, there are exceptions, but they are very, there are far and few in between. So, what to do in a situation like that? Well, first off, you need to check if your loved one has potentially run out of insurance entitlements. Most patients are not because if there’s a clinical reason for them to stay in the ICU, the insurance often pays. That’s number one.

Number two, you need to get a second opinion. You need to have someone like us here at intensivecarehotline.com to look at medical records and find the reasons why your loved one can’t go to LTAC because they’re simply not ready and the disaster is waiting to happen. So, we can help you with that.

Number three, ask for the hospital discharge policy. The hospital discharge policy most likely will say that the patient cannot be transferred to another facility without patient or power of attorney consent. If they don’t show you the hospital policy, you know what’s in there anyway, because that’s what the policy will say.

Lastly, you can and possibly need to make a complaint to a hospital executive and put a stop to it. You will find that if you make a complaint to a hospital executive, you will actually find that things will change for you because hospital executives cannot deny or ignore the complaint of a patient or a family.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

If you implement those strategies, you will see that results will follow and that’s how we’ve helped families in similar situations for over a decade now, getting tangible results.

Out of that, we build a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care where we answer your questions. Our membership, you get access to at 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.

Now, I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to doctors and nurses directly. I talk to you directly. I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one in intensive care so that you make informed decisions, and have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

Now, I have worked in intensive care and critical care for over 20 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 since 2013 as part of my intensivecarehotline.com consulting and advocacy service.

Have a look at our testimonial section and see what our clients say. Have a look at our podcast section with some client interviews. We can confidently say here we have saved lives with our consulting and advocacy and we can do the same for you.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time, once again, so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

I also offer a representation in family meetings with intensive care teams so that you don’t get walked all over and that you have a strategy when going there and I assess with you whether you should even go into a family meeting in the first place.

Also, we offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are simply suspecting medical negligence. Now, we also offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are simply 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.

Thank you so much for watching.

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, comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have.

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.