Jaipur, April 30, 2015: Did you believe ICU cannot be re-created at home? If yes, then this story will change your perception forever!
An 82 year old lady, was dealing with multiple health complications including fracture of her right hip along with serious chest disorders. Not only she had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), she had also developed pneumonia which can be very dangerous at her age. She was also suffering from heart disease and diabetes that had the potential of complicating any other medical conditions.
Her condition that included post surgical care for a hip surgery required high end care at home. However, she desired to spend her recovery time at home, rather than at hospital. This is when she sought HealthCare at Home’s ICU services at home to professionally support the post operative care in her case.
Besides, a post surgical scenario for the hip, the elderly lady had also developed pleural effusion or an abnormal amount of fluid around the lung due to pneumonia. At the same she had hyponatremia or abnormally low levels of sodium in her blood. Together with her ongoing condition of diabetes, these issues posed a major risk to her recovery, particularly for a patient of her age.
“It was a difficult case for us as this elderly lady was imposing enormous trust in our services to lift her out of multiple threatening conditions. However, given the fact that we are very well equipped in ICU services made sure that everything went according to script. We not only created ICU-like conditions at her home, we also took care of her daily activities of living very closely. In case of an octogenarian, when body’s internal immunity becomes weak, managing pneumonia is a very fragile task. Therefore with chest physiotherapy and nebulization were daily activities that our staff performed. The recovery was gradual but certain. We are extremely delighted at the fact that our dear patient is finally back on her feet,” says Vivek Srivastava, CEO-HCAH.
With the patient bed-bound, the crucial medical functions included care of bedridden, urinary catheter care to prevent discomfort or infections as well as ensuring her vitals statistic were closely monitored and helped, assisting with daily activities. Regular blood tests were conducted and the reports consulted with the doctors.
With the help of physiotherapists she was put on active and passive exercises slowly at home at the timings convenient to her, to ensure her hip implant and muscles gained back strength.
After two weeks she started walking with assistance and gradually her general health also started improving. At a time when a patient is recuperating from serious illness, right nutritional support is very crucial. Our team of nutritional experts made sure they closely followed Dr Mukual’s condition, her blood sugar as well as sodium levels to provide the right nutritional counseling to her. Also important was to ensure that the patient did not gain too much weight, given that she was restricted to bed and devoid of normal physical activity. Extra weight gain could also have put excessive pressure on her post surgical hip. Keeping all these factors in mind, she was provided customized diet plans on a daily basis to ensure intake of right nutrition.
After two months of service, the patient’s general condition has improved to a large extent with all symptoms of the diseases subsiding.
“Our ICU service has provided a solution to all those who are confined to ICU beds for long and want to go back to the comfort of their homes without hindering their medical treatment. We saw that people got fed up with long stays in ICU and the feeling was torturous. We wanted to offer them an alternative and this is how we came up with the concept. Our ICU services are up to the mark and very cost-effective. In shifting from a hospital to HCAH’s ICU at home service, a patient can cut his cost by half and yet get all the required treatment, equipment, and infrastructure required for survival and recovery.” Says Dr Gaurav Thukral, Head Medical Services, HCAH
The patient is now walking independently and has regained her normal health, and is happy about her decision to take our services.
“It was not an easy decision to hire ICU services for home because these require very adeptly trained and experienced staff. However, spending a lot of time in hospital was daunting for me, particularly so for a person of my age who longs for the comfort of her home. When someone suggested about HCAH’s ICU at home services, I decided to go ahead, and in retrospect it has been a very good decision. During these two months, the healthcare staff of HCAH gave me immense support and care. The nursing staff, the physiotherapists who looked after me daily became like family members to me by the end of two months. I am extremely happy to have gotten back to my routine,” says the patient.
“The personalized care offered through ICU@Home addresses the distinctive needs of every patient. Since its inception in Jaipur, we have received overwhelmed response from the patients and their family. The satisfaction on their faces has encouraged us to provide unique facility to every patient.” Says Abhishek Malik, HCAH Head, Jaipur Unit
HCAH is equipped to set up comprehensive ICU care at home which includes a high end bed, oxygen infrastructure, medical ventilator, bedside monitors and all the equipment that would be available in a hospital ICU. To man it, we have well trained personnel who are equipped at handling the installations and taking care of the patient. The company employs high degree of sophistication in ensuring that thorough background check is conducted on all our medical staff and nurses. At the same time we provide highly sophisticated medical training to them to ensure their services are at par with any hospital.
The doctor who has been treating you will still be able to regularly monitor you and speak to you through video calls or phone calls, monitoring your vital statistics closely and recommending action, wherever required.
Date:
Thursday, April 30, 2015