Central to our care has been the establishment of an outpatient process designed to regularly follow individuals requiring chronic ventilator care (either invasive or non-invasive) and those ‘at risk’ of developing respiratory failure.
The clinic provides regular, inter-professional, proactive planned visits that incorporate patient goals to help ventilator-assisted individuals maintain optimal health. The purpose of the clinicis to:
- Provide best practices to support safe, quality care for ventilator-assisted individuals outside the hospital.
- Identify and implement those services that support the care of ventilator-assisted individuals.
- Provide training and education for ventilator-assisted individuals and their caregivers, to help foster safe, quality care in the most appropriate setting.
- Provide continual communication and educational outreach to other clinicians caring for ventilator-assisted individuals across the continuum of care.
The activities of the clinic include:
- Scheduling regular visits for proactive respiratory and associated care.
- Review of ventilator equipment and prescriptions.
- Changing tracheostomy tubes.
- Cough-assist training.
- Outpatient initiation for nocturnal non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NIV).
- Goals of care discussions and documentation, including action plans for acute illness and advance directions.
- Collaborative inter-professional goal setting and problem solving for the development and communication of a shared care plan amongst involved clinicians.
- Clinical case management services for more complex patients, especially those requiring invasive LTV.
