The health of human beings is an important concern to everyone. Clearly, everyone has a hope of having a better life. However, certain conditions such as heart and lung difficulties may call for the introduction of ventilators to a patient. In certain conditions, home ventilators may be preferred but these may also call for special care. This is because several challenges may be witnessed to home ventilators like LTV 1000 and trilogy ventilators including geographical barriers and the need to overcome religious and cultural beliefs. Nonetheless, all challenges must be addressed accordingly to ensure that patients get the best care while at home.
Issues that are Specific to Home Ventilations
While using ventilators at home, certain issues are likely to be experienced. Common issues which must be considered include the level of adherence to the training offered, families’ involvement is supporting the mitigation, reimbursement policies, and the required level of technology (Masefield et al., 2017). The fact that doctors and nurses may not be around at all times implies that constant evaluation of the health conditions of patients should be carried out. Trilogy ventilators are controlled by both the pressure and volume variations, hence, can offer an ideal facility at home due to its simplicity. Remarkably, failure to understand clinical challenges may confuse patients who may end up confusing it with a failure of the home ventilators. The only manner in which such types of confusions can be addressed is by enhancing regular checkups. Other common issues likely to be experienced include defective equipment used for ventilation, reckless caregivers, hence, improper installation and use leading to destroyed equipment. Arguably, those issues are pronounced at home due to the fact that qualified and experienced health workers may not be around to monitor the situation. At times, the health conditions of patients may either improve or deteriorate rendering the initially installed home ventilators useless.
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Geographic Challenges make it Difficult for an Agency to Serve Patients who need
Ventilators at Home
Despite the fact that patients and their families may end up preferring home ventilators to address their medical needs, there are several geographical challenges likely to be experienced. These include valleys, steep slopes and hilly residential areas, the existence of troublesome rivers and mountainous terrains. Such features may prevent the free movement of physicians, caregivers or even patients as far as the application of home ventilators is concerned. Remarkably, patients relying on this type of ventilation may be transferred from time to time depending on the nature of their complications (Moradian, 2016). Inadequate and unqualified supervisions may be encountered whenever the cost of traveling is considered to be high (Moradian, 2016). For instance, whenever floods or hurricanes occur near an area that hosts a patient, it may be very complex for caregivers to travel swiftly, and, thus, the patient may not be given adequate attention as a result of geographical barriers.
Overcoming the Geographical Challenges
To respond to the geographical challenges, the acquisition of more healthcare givers, improving the transportation network and training people adequately may be useful. Through a thorough training program, the need for constant visitation by qualified caregivers may be avoided. For instance, family members of the affected patients may be trained on the different features of LTV 1000 ventilators like the touch-turn-touch interface, breathing trial function and the ultrasensitive flow trigger devices. How the whole system works, and how they can observe any unusual trends. By doing so, many people would be able to work comfortably without involving the services of experts at all times. Consequently, the training would ensure that regardless of the geographical barriers, patients receive the required services on time. Increasing the number of employed health attendants may also overcome geographical barriers. Specifically, this would eradicate the need for deploying unqualified workers, and also ensure that burnout is not experienced due to a lot of travelling. Finally, improved transport network may ensure that challenging conditions such as difficult terrains do not pose a challenge, and, thus, easier transfer of patients or health workers may be witnessed.
The geographic area with the Amish, Muslims, Ethiopians, Christian Scientists, and Jehovah’s Witness, the Bottom of the Grand Canyon, Rural Alabama
Different religious beliefs and cultural practices either discourage or advocate for the use of ventilators for patients. In several situations, patients may require urgent ventilators but unable to consent, and, thus, families must be involved (Butler, 2016). It has been a common practice for families to object the exercise due to earlier remarks by the patient regarding the use of ventilators (Butler, 2016). In order to ensure that ventilators are used in a set up where a lot of resistance is faced due to religion like Islam and Christianity, public awareness campaigns should be carried out. In the most unexposed areas, people should also be informed about the use of ventilators in saving lives and by doing so, they may have a transformed and supportive attitude.
Response to Earthquakes, Power Outages, Storms, Monsoons, Snow and Freezing Temperatures
There is a need to ensure that unexpected conditions such as earthquakes, power outages and extreme temperature conditions are properly addressed to avoid impeding the functioning of both LTV 1000 and trilogy ventilators. Power outages and electrical storms can be handled by installing a power back up, which would ensure that even if power outage occurs, the patient will still be in a safer position. Extreme weather conditions like snow, monsoon and freezing temperatures can also be taken care of by introducing heating, cooling and ventilation system, which will regulate pressure, temperature and humidity.
Conclusion
Some patients may prefer to use home ventilators in addressing their health complications. The approach may experience issues such as the need to involve families in financing, need for training and also technological advancement. Trilogy ventilators depend on pressure and volume as control mechanisms, therefore, they can be used instead of LTV 1000 ventilators. Geographical challenges, mostly caused by physical features like steep slopes may act as a challenge towards the effective movement of caregivers or patients, thus, affecting the quality of services offered. Proper training of families, hiring of more staff members and improving the means of transportation may ensure that geographical barriers have been overcome. Moreover, people engraved into cultural and religious beliefs against ventilators should be trained about the significance of the same in supporting life. Additionally, a proper system to regulate room conditions and power backups should be put in place.
References
Butler, K. (2016). The Breath of Life: Should Christians Agree to Ventilator Support? Retrieved from: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-breath-of-life
Masefield, S., Vitacca, M., Dreher, M., Kampelmacher, M., Escarrabill, J., Paneroni, M., & Ambrosino, N. (2017). Attitudes and preferences of home mechanical ventilation users from four European countries: an ERS/ELF survey. ERJ open research , 3 (2), 00015-2017.
Moradian, S. T., Nourozi, K., Ebadi, A., & Khankeh, H. R. (2017). Barriers against Providing Home Health Care Delivery to Ventilator-Dependent Patients: A Qualitative Content Analysis. Trauma Monthly , 22 (3).
