This blog post was first published at our sister site http://intensivecareathome.com.au a specialised home care nursing service, providing Quality of Life and/or Quality of end of life for long-term mechanically ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy and their Families, as a genuine alternative to a long term stay in Intensive Care.

In this week’s blog I want to further evaluate and further explain what INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services look like in the real world and how they work as an extension of Hospital Intensive Care services. So, let’s say an adult or a child has been in Intensive Care for a long period of time- and I consider a long period of time around the day 40 to day 60 mark- and the only thing that’s keeping the adult or the child in Intensive Care is the ventilator dependency with Tracheostomy.

Furthermore, it’s unlikely that the long-term ventilated adult or child is going anywhere in a hurry and they are likely to stay in Intensive Care for long periods to come, which is often the case with long-term ventilated Adults or Children with Tracheostomy. Rather than now waiting for the ventilator dependent adult or child to go through a long, slow, burdensome and often difficult weaning process with numerous likely setbacks, including developing or catching an infection in an Intensive Care environment, INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME provides a genuine, safe and a more holistic alternative and solution to the problem that the long-term ventilated adult or child, including their Family is facing.

Imagine what improvements can be made in somebody’s own home by being more flexible, being more mobile, by having more social interactions with family and friends and by being less dependent on a clinical routine in a clinical environment. How much better does it feel from an emotional and psychological point of view for a Client and their Family to have choice and more control in their own home environment?

By taking a long-term ventilated adult or child out of Intensive Care a new horizon opens for the often depressed, lethargic, sometimes delirious and sleep disturbed individual and their Families. It makes a massive positive emotional and psychological difference to the Clients, as well as to the Families by having the choice and the opportunity to go home.

It also opens up new and exciting opportunities for Intensive Care Units, Hospitals, as well as for health care funding organisations, whether they’d be public or private. The service option to go home can be chosen for a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy if they are likely to improve and if they are likely to be weaned off the ventilator. The service option is also there for long-term ventilated Adults or Children who are likely to approach their end of life. Rather than spending their last few weeks or sometimes months in Intensive Care on a ventilator, how much nicer would it be to have Quality of end of life in their own home?

Some Intensive Care Units are taking some of their long-term Patients home for a day before starting to palliate those Patients in a clinical environment. Palliation and Quality of-end-of-Life can be achieved in a home environment for long-term ventilated Clients and you don’t have to wait 60 or 80 days in Intensive Care before somebody is going home for a day. You can safely take those Clients home and let them spend their last few weeks at home- on a ventilator.

I am sure that everybody working in Intensive Care can picture Patients who are suitable for a home care environment, even if you haven’t worked in the Intensive Home Care environment! Imagine what it means for a long-term ventilated Adult or Child to be in Intensive Care, in foreign territory, totally out of their comfort zone very often with little dignity and little privacy. The same applies to the family of the Client. Imagine what it means for the Family of a long-term ventilated Adult or Child in Intensive Care.

How much longer can they watch their loved one suffer in foreign territory? As always, I’d like your views on this topic. What do you think? Leave a comment below in our comment section! If you are a health professional in Intensive Care and you think you know a long-term ventilated Adult or Child with Tracheostomy and their Family who would like to improve their Quality of Life and/or their Quality of end of Life in their own home rather than in Intensive Care- even if it is to go home for a weekend- and if your organisation would also like to save money and resources along the way or if you simply have any questions check out http://intensivecareathome.com.au/ or send us an email to [email protected]

Sincerely,
your friend

Patrik Hutzel