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

So, today’s tip is once again, to stay out of LTAC at all costs, and here is, once again, why. A couple of days ago, I was doing a YouTube live and I had one of the attendants asking questions there, and the gist was that their family member went to LTAC from the ICU and bounced back within 24 hours.

I have made countless videos about this that within 24 to 48 hours if your loved one is going to LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) with the tracheostomy, with the ventilator, with a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube, they’re bouncing back into ICU because they’re simply not ready. LTAC are not equipped to look after critical care patients and no matter what ICU says and LTAC says they’re specialized on ventilation and tracheostomy, well, that’s only one small aspect of it.

The bigger picture is that patients have been critically ill. They had specialist input often from cardiologists, hematologists, neurologists, and the list of specialties that need to give input to a critical care patient is long. Then all of a sudden, they’re going to LTAC, no more specialist input, no more critical care nurses, which is the minimum requirement for someone with a ventilator and a tracheostomy to be able to get them to wean off the ventilator. It just doesn’t happen and no matter what the website says of the LTAC, it’s all a whole lot of nonsense, because look up family’s reviews of LTACs, look them up.

Look up the case studies on our website, how many times do we talk to clients where they say, “Oh, look, my family member went to LTAC against my better judgment and then they bounced back just as you predicted within 24 to 48 hours.”  The worst part here is this, if they do bounce back to ICU, the ICU where your loved one has been discharged from no longer has a bed, and then they’re going to another ICU. Consistency and holistic care are so important for critical care patients. You can’t shift them from one place to another, but now it’s getting worse.

There’s only often a 30-day time window in LTAC and if your loved one can’t be weaned, they end up in a SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility) and it’s getting worse there. If you have a 1:5 nurse-to-patient ratio in LTAC, you have a 1:10-patient ratio in a SNF.  Sorry, I should also say that disclaimer, this is only for our audience in the US. This is not for any other countries; this is really for our audience in the U.S. because LTACs are very specific to the U.S. healthcare system.

Now, I want to give you another example, I want to read out an email that I had from a reader who says,

“Hi Patrik,

My brother is currently in the hospital in Santa Maria. He needs to be moved to LTAC; however, they are saying that his insurance is only contracted for Los Angeles County; however, his entire family is in Vallejo, San Francisco, and the Sacramento area. Kindred is the facility; however, they do have facilities in Northern California. Can you help?

From, Kimberly.”

I actually spoke to Kimberly a couple of weeks ago and here is what’s happened. By the time I finally got Kimberly on the phone, she actually said that just a few hours before I had her on the phone, her brother had actually passed away.

Now, can you imagine the clinical judgment of an ICU says the patient is ready for LTAC and they’re not even making it there because they pass away beforehand. It’s all a scam and getting ICU patients to LTAC is all set up to save money free of ICU beds. It’s not set up to deliver the clinical care that is necessary for patients with ventilation, and tracheostomy, and that need specialist input from doctors, specialist nurses like ICU nurses, critical care nurses, and respiratory therapists in the US. LTACs have none of it. So, this is really a warning. Once again, do not go to LTAC. If you need proven strategies, on how to keep your loved one out of LTAC and keep them in ICU, please reach out to us.

On another note, we have just helped one client over the last few months to keep her mother in ICU and not let her go to LTAC. After many weeks in ICU, she’s now off the ventilator and decannulated, and has the tracheostomy removed. That is such a great success story that needs to be celebrated and it goes to show that our strategies work. It goes to show that being in the right environment is getting good outcomes for patients, but the biggest thing here is you need to take responsibility, which is what this client did. The client did, “Tell me what I need to do, tell me how you can help me,” and we did, and we got an outcome.

You can have the same outcome. You just need to follow instructions. You can’t be timid. If you’re timid, please, it’s probably not the right place for you. If you want to be timid and you don’t want to go against the grain, this is probably not for you. But the reality is that in order to get outcomes, you need to do something different. You can’t do what 99.9% of families of critically ill patients in intensive care do, which is nothing and just not everything of what they are being told.

Now, because we get so many questions, and we want to help so many people who have loved ones in ICU, that’s 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 access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that are only accessible for members that help you steer this incredibly difficult territory that is intensive care. Ebooks and videos will help you solve the biggest challenges.

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 you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly. I make sure you make informed decisions, you have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

I have worked in intensive care and critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse unit manager for over 5 years. I have been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can say without the slightest hint of exaggeration that we have saved lives.

You can verify that by looking at our testimonial section or by going to our podcast section where you can watch some client interviews and testimonials. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, and I talk with them, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but you must ask when you have a loved one in intensive care.

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 simply suspecting medical negligence.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. Once again, I make sure your loved one gets the best care and treatment. I also make sure that going into a family meeting with intensive care teams is the right thing to do. Sometimes, it’s not the right thing to do and I will advise you accordingly. I have been in hundreds of family meetings over the years, either when I worked in the ICU or here with intensivecarehotline.com clients.

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 from this video, and share the video with your friends and families.

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.

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