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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 about why, once again, you either should not let your loved one go to LTAC or you should aim for your loved one going back from LTAC to ICU as quickly as possible if they’re not progressing forward.

So, what am I talking about? This is mainly for our U.S. audience because LTACs only exist in the United States. Most patients in ICU in other countries such as Australia, U.K., and Canada, they stay in ICU until they get better and then they get discharged to a hospital ward or hospital floor, not the case in the U.S. The U.S. patients that end up with a ventilator and a tracheostomy, the goal for ICUs often is to send them to a LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) facility.

From my experience, after having worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years and where I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care all over the world since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com, my experience is that, when patients go to LTAC, it’s not even the better version of a nursing home.

So, think about it that when someone goes from intensive care where the highest level of care can be provided in a hospital, you’re going to a nursing home. In intensive care, patients are on life support. They might be on dialysis, they are on ventilators, they might be on multiple inotropes/vasopressors, and they might be on ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). And then, you want to discharge them to a nursing home? That is sheer and utter madness, and it’s designed to save money, not to meet high clinical standards.

Here in intensivecarehotline.com, we have helped so many families in intensive care all over the world and you can verify that on our testimonial section or on our podcast section where we have done client interviews. I can confidently and without the slightest hint of exaggeration say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy.

Coming back to our topic today, so you should never let your loved one go from ICU to LTAC. There are many proven strategies to let that not happen because, once again, we’ve helped so many clients achieve that very goal.

Here is the bottleneck when someone goes from ICU to LTAC, you’re losing all the specialist input. When patients are in intensive care, you need the specialist input from intensive care doctors, intensive care nurses. In the U.S., you need RTs (respiratory therapists), but you also need the specialist input from hematology, infection control, neurology, cardiology. Depending on what the reason for your loved one’s admission into ICU is, you need that specialist input. The minute you go to LTAC, you’re losing all of that. It’s breaking away completely.

So, here is some of the worst-case scenarios we’ve seen over the years, someone who goes into ICU with a pneumonia, for example, at their first failed attempt of weaning off the ventilator, they end up with a tracheostomy and the PEG tube. And as soon as they have a tracheostomy and the PEG, they’re going to LTAC without giving it a second goal to wean off the ventilator, giving it a third goal, trying to avoid the tracheostomy and the PEG in the first place.

By the way, as another side tip here, do not give consent to a PEG tube. Never ever. Not without consultation with us here first, once again, we have helped so many families in intensive care avoiding LTAC just by not giving consent to a PEG tube. I’m not going to detail now, it would go above the length of this video, but I have made other videos why you should not give consent to a PEG tube under any circumstances.

So, coming back, when you stay in ICU, you have all the specialist input that you need. Also, things like x-rays are done more regularly. Bloods and pathology results are taken more regularly, which is very, very important. When you move a patient from point A being critically ill to point B to recovery or staying alive, you need all that specialist input. You’re not getting it at LTAC. Never ever, no matter what people say.

Also, what ICUs in the U.S. do, they tell you that LTACs are specialized on weaning patients off the ventilator. Well, from my experience, that’s not the case. Just have a look at some of the LTACs online, have a look at their Google reviews. Have a look what people say there and come back to me here and leave some comments below what those reviews actually say, but it’s getting worse.

What also often happens is hospitals and ICUs, in particular, will tell you, “Well, your loved one should go to LTAC. They are specialized in weaning off the ventilator.” Then you go to LTAC, nothing happens for a couple of weeks and then after a couple of weeks of nothing happening, they’ll tell you, “Oh! Your loved one only has another 14 days left,” and then they will go to a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) because we haven’t been able to wean your loved one off the ventilator and they haven’t even tried.

It is all a scam, and you need to be on high alert, and you need to get a second opinion from Day 1, which is what we are doing here at intensivecarehotline.com. It’s part of our consulting and advocacy. We’re almost road mapping for you what lies ahead and how you can make sure your loved one stays on track, stays on course, making sure they’re getting the best care and treatment possible.

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.

If you don’t know what lies ahead, if you can’t bring yourself into a position where you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment, you will be fighting an uphill battle.

We have many families coming to us here in intensivecarehotline.com. They come to us, they’re coming to us when it’s too late, when their loved ones are already in LTAC. Once again, we have helped many families also to go back from LTAC to ICU, you can reach out for that as well. But the easier option is not to have your loved one go into LTAC in the first place.

We just last week, wrote an email to hospital executive on behalf of a client who was at risk of having the loved one go to LTAC and within not even 24 hours later, the client came back to us and said that the ICU took the transfer to LTAC off the table because of your email. So, when we look at medical records, for example, we will find valid clinical reasons why patients can’t go to LTAC. This is why having a second opinion is so important. You can’t be flying blind when you have a loved one in intensive care, you just can’t. If you do, that’s madness. It’s a once in a lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong. You got to turn every stone upside down. You can’t leave any stone unturned.

So, I hope that helps you to understand why it’s so important that you get a second opinion from Day 1, that you look at all opportunities available to you, and that you understand intensive care fast, you need to understand intensive care fast.

Once again, I’ve worked in critical care/intensive care for nearly 25 years and you can get all the expert advice here at the intensivecarehotline.com, and that’s also why we created the membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care that you could become a member of 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 me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email, and you also have access to 21 eBooks, 21 videos, exclusive videos, and exclusive eBooks that I have personally written and recorded that will help you making informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly and I help you walk you through this experience, almost hand holding you through this experience so that you know what questions to ask, what to look for, how to manage doctors and nurses. Most families in intensive care don’t even know it is possible to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly and 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. Once again, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that your loved one gets best care and treatment.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can get 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 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 send us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.com 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, 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.

I also do a weekly YouTube live and you will get notification for that if you are a subscriber of my YouTube channel or if you go to intensivecarehotline.com and you subscribe to our email newsletter there, you will get a notification there for the weekly YouTube live.

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.