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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: Two More Clients That Regret Having Their Loved Ones Going to LTAC (Long-Term Acute Care) from ICU. Here’s How to Prevent It!

If you want to know how important it is to avoid LTAC (Long-Term Acute Care) if you are having a family member in intensive care in the United States, stay tuned. I’ve got news for you.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, this morning, I was talking to two clients, actually, who have their family members in LTAC. They went from LTAC to ICU, at the time, they were not clients yet. They read all the blog posts, and they saw the videos about me advocating against LTAC and not having their loved ones go to LTAC. They saw the videos, but they just thought it might have been a hoax or whatever. Now, they realize that having their loved ones in LTAC is an absolute disaster.

So, one client is telling me, “Hey, we need help.” We’ve got my sister in LTAC. She’s got cerebral palsy, she’s on a ventilator, she has a tracheostomy, and they’re not doing anything. She’s got a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:6, whereas in ICU, she gets 1-to-1, 1-to-2, and she can see that what I’ve been saying in my videos that LTACs are not equipped to wean complex patients off the ventilator and tracheostomy is absolutely true.

She said, “How can we get my sister back to ICU?” And I said, “Look, we need to look at the medical records, we need to potentially talk to doctors and nurses. But first of all, we need to look at the medical records and find the arguments for having your sister go back to ICU.” But the reality is, if someone is on a ventilator and a tracheostomy and on TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), they need to go back to ICU. LTAC is not the right place, but even without the TPN, she needs to go back to ICU, and there’s enough research and evidence out there to confirm that. So, that’s one case.

The other case is a client who rings up and says, “Look, my mom is in a step-down ICU. She’s ventilated, she has a tracheostomy, she needs dialysis, and she went to LTAC.” And what have I been saying in my many videos that patients, when they first go to LTAC, bounce back into ICU, and that’s exactly what she said. She said, “Well, my mom went to LTAC, and within 2 or 3 days, she was back in ICU because she went into AF, into atrial fibrillation.”

An LTAC cannot manage that, nor can they manage a ventilated patient with a tracheostomy on dialysis. There’s a very high chance of going into atrial fibrillation because their potassium levels and electrolyte levels might be jumping up and down because of dialysis. If you don’t know how to manage that, and LTACs definitely don’t know how to manage that, patients are at very high risk of going back to ICU.

I’ve made countless videos over the years detailing other situations like the ones I’m detailing today that the minute patients go into LTAC, it’s not going to work out for someone on a ventilator with a tracheostomy or even for someone with a tracheostomy without a ventilator even. They just don’t have the skills.

LTACs have been built to manage money, not patients’ clinical conditions. It’s about managing money flow, and it’s about managing beds in ICU. It’s not about holistic clinical care or what’s in the best interest of a patient.

So, how can you avoid patients going to LTAC? Very simple. You engage us for consulting and advocacy, mainly for the advocacy side of things. We have helped many clients to go to or stay in ICU instead of going to LTAC, and we’ve got testimonials for that. We’ve got podcasts about that where we’ve interviewed clients. So, you can see how we help them keep your loved one in ICU instead of going to LTAC.

I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries, where I worked as an intensive care nurse manager for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care all around the world here at intensivecarehotline.com. since 2013.  Like I said, I can confidently, confidently say that we have helped many clients, including saving their loved ones’ lives, including sparing them from going to LTAC, and get best care and treatment in ICU instead of going to LTAC.

Like I said, we’ve got testimonials about that. You can look up our testimonials at intensivecarehotline.com in our testimonial section, or you can look them up in our podcast section, where we’ve actually done client interviews.

We have helped hundreds of members and clients over the years when they have a loved one critically ill in intensive care, that’s why I do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once-in-a-lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf. I represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in real time, so you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

We also have 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 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 your intensive care-related questions there.

You also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded. All of that will help you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, and making sure your loved one gets the best care and treatment always.

All of that, you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers at the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

If you like my videos, subscribe to my You Tube Channel channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below about what you want to see next what questions and insights you have from this video.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show. You will get a notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my email newsletter or if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel. I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

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.

Related Articles:

Quick Tip for Families in ICU: You Were Absolutely Right, LTAC is a Complete Waste of Time After ICU! Quick Tip for Families in ICU: How to Avoid Euthanasia in ICU After Tracheostomy! Quick tip for families in ICU: Two steps forward one step back when your loved one is in ICU! (Part 2) Quick Tip for Families in ICU: Should You Stop Treatment if Your Loved One’s in Multi Organ Failure? Quick Tip for Families in ICU: Should your Loved One Go from ICU to LTAC with Multiple Comorbidities?