My Dad's in ICU on BIPAP & Type 2 Respiratory Failure, Can He Go Home with INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME?

Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com where we provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies at home and where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units at home whilst providing quality care for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies at home, otherwise medically complex adults and children at home, which includes Home BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), Home CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), home tracheostomy care for adults and children that are not ventilated Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), home IV potassium infusions, home IV magnesium infusions, and home IV antibiotics. We also provide port management, central line management, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line management, as well as Hickman’s line management, and we also provide palliative care services at home.

We’re also sending our critical care nurses into the home for emergency department bypass services as we have done so in the past successfully for the Western Sydney Local Area Health District for their in-touch program.

Today, I have an email from Katie who says, “My dad’s in ICU and he’s on BIPAP for Type 2 respiratory failure with CO2 (carbon dioxide) retention. They want to push him out to the ward but when they’ve done so, he bounces back into ICU in no time because of CO2 retention. Is a better option here to go home with Intensive Care at Home?”

Well, Katie, I’m glad you’re asking and absolutely yes, because some of our clients at home are on BIPAP ventilation 24/7 for CO2 retention. So, they aren’t Type 2 respiratory failure such as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), asthma, and so forth. It’s something that really can only be managed in ICU or sometimes in HDU (High Dependency Unit) or progressive care unit or sometimes on a respiratory ward where they have really good skills, including ICU nursing skills. But other than that, there are no other areas in the hospital where this can be managed safely most of the time.

So therefore, the short answer to your question is yes, going home with Intensive Care at Home is a much better option. Especially, when it’s a chronic condition because your dad won’t be safe in a hospital in the long run. He’ll get depressed in ICU, he has no quality of life, and there is no point really in keeping him there.

Also, it’s very expensive to stay in ICU. This is for anyone who’s watching this, who might be affiliated with health insurance or anyone funding home care and also funding the ICU bed. You’re paying $5,000 to $6,000 per bed day in ICU, the chronic condition doesn’t really get any better. So therefore, going home with Intensive Care at Home and slashing 50% of the cost of an intensive care bed makes a lot of sense. Not even mentioning the quality of life or quality of end of life for your dad at home.

So, how does it work? We often do nursing assessments for our clients to put it all in perspective and highlight what needs to be done at home, what level of care needs to be put in place at home, what’s the cost? But in essence, if your dad needs 24-hour intensive care nursing in ICU for BIPAP or CPAP, it’s much better, much more cost-effective, much more patient and family-friendly to do this at home. On top of that, we’re freeing up an ICU bed, which is in high demand. Once again, it’s a win-win situation all around.

Then, it also comes down to creating the care plan for home care, making sure you’ve got the right team at home, which we’ve been creating Intensive Care at Home teams for 12 years now. So, we have a good understanding who’s the right fit for the right client, and we can help you with that as well.

Now, with Intensive Care at Home, we are currently operating all around Australia in all major capital cities and in all regional and rural areas. We are an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved Intensive Care at Home nursing service. We are TAC (Transport Accident Commission) and WorkSafe approved in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme) in Queensland. We are also a DVA approved service provider all around Australia. Our clients and we, as an organization, have also received funding through public hospitals, private health funds, as well as departments of health.

In 2024, Intensive Care at Home is the only service provider in Australia that is third-party accredited for Intensive Care at Home nursing. There’s no other organization in 2024 that has achieved the same level of accreditation than we have and bring the same level of skills into the community. We are employing hundreds of years of intensive care nursing experience combined in the community. I believe that is unmatched in 2024 in Australia. Most of our staff have postgraduate critical care qualifications. Approximately 70 to 80% of our staff have completed the postgraduate critical care qualification that enables us to look after the highest acuity clients in the community in Australia.

We are also providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination which is critical for most NDIS participants to obtain the right level of funding and the right level of support they need for 24-hour nursing care.

If you’re at home already with the ventilator, with the tracheostomy or with the tracheostomy without a ventilator, or on BIPAP, CPAP ventilation without a tracheostomy or your family member is in a situation like that I’ve just read out the email from Katie and you don’t think you have the experience to go home from intensive care, please reach out to us. We can help you with that. Also building teams at home, if you think you don’t have the right team at home, we can help you with all of that.

Now, if you’re an NDIS Support Coordinator and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, please reach out to us as well. If you’re looking for funding for nursing care, I also encourage you to reach out to us. We can help you with the advocacy and we also provide specialist NDIS nursing assessments.

If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change, we’re currently offering jobs for critical care nurses in the home in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga, and Bendigo in Victoria, as well as in Warragul and Leongatha in Victoria. If you have worked in critical care for a minimum of 2 years, pediatric ICU, ED, and you have already completed postgraduate critical care qualification, we’ll be delighted to hear from you.

Please keep in mind we are offering a tailor-made solution to our clients, which includes regular staff. Our clients want to have the same staff coming to their home over and over again because they are very vulnerable and it’s all about building those critical relationships and having regular and stable teams. So, if you’re looking potentially for agency work where you can come and go, this may not be the right fit for you. But if you’re interested in a long-term engagement with us and the long-term engagement with our highly vulnerable clients and their families and building those critical relationships, then this is a win-win situation for everyone.

If you’re an intensive care specialist or an ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We’re currently expanding our medical team as well.