Critical care treatment takes place in an intensive care unit (ICU) at the hospital. Patients may have a serious illness or injury. In the ICU, patients get round-the-clock care by a specially trained team.
When the recovery time for patients is long, doctors advise for discharge from hospital and recommend similar facilities at home. Often, we receive calls for home ICU setups and the cost around such a setup is a black box that folks at the patient’s end are always curious about. We share detailed cost breakdowns of each piece of equipment used in the setup for ease of understanding and transparency.
Home ICU setups demand as much an in-depth knowledge of the latest trends and technology in the field as patient condition. There are various factors that should be taken into account before arranging for such setups at home.
Here are some of the things that should be checked.
1. If a patient needs a ventilator, one must check the type of ventilator that is recommended, invasive or non invasive.
2. What is the oxygen level and SpO2 record for the past few days. Vital signs records for last few days.
3. Whether patient is in coma stage or conscious.
4. Risks of deep vein thrombosis.
5. Assessment analysis of pressure injury.
6. Tracheostomy, Ryles tube, Urine catheter status.
7. If there is any chemo port, any ascites fluid drainage tubing.
8. Overall patient history and records, type of medication and infusion, if there is a need of syringe pump.
Hence, just arranging for oxygen, multipara monitor and bed may not fulfill patient requirements of critical care. In such cases we always prefer to meet the patient with their doctor at the hospital and get complete feedback and medical history. This way, clear and complete information transfer is facilitated without relying on words from the patient family which may not be accurate always.
We check the preconditions of a home ICU setup at the patient’s home. Selection of the right home duty critical care nurse is as important as selecting the equipment with right specifications. Experienced nursing staff who can take quick and right decisions during emergency is of paramount importance.
