Tracheostomy Review Service
The Tracheostomy Review Service (TRS) is a specialist consultative service introduced in 2004 at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. Approximately 30-50 percutaneous tracheostomies are inserted in the ICU per year.
The team members:
Intensive Care Specialists
Critical Care Liaison nurses
Physiotherapists
Dietitians
Speech Pathologists
The surgical tracheostomy service is primarily run by the ENT team however ICU will assist in Code Blues related to surgical tracheostomies.
Roles of the service
1) Coordinate and support tracheostomy care for all patents in the hospital with percutaneous tracheostomies.
2) Perform twice weekly TRS ward rounds to guide the tracheostomy weaning process.
3) Ongoing education and support to home units and ward nursing staff for tracheostomy weaning in between TRS ward round days.
4) Family education and support around tracheostomy function and weaning.
5) Support home units with family discussions.
6) Assist with patient screening for post ICU cognitive, mental and physical problems that require long term followup. This includes referral to Occupational Therapy, Psychiatry, and ongoing Dietetics input for patients with persistent feeding problems post critical illness.
7) Support trainee education around tracheostomy management within the scope of their discipline.
8) Organise and run Tracheostomy Study days for hospital wide education of tracheostomy management.
For more information
For patients or families:
Please see the attached tracheostomy brochure for St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.
Tracheostomy brochure SVHM Oct 18
For staff:
For any questions or if you would like to organise specific training for tracheostomy management and emergencies, please email the ICU Liaison nurse or the tracheostomy review team at the following email addresses:
ICUCriticalCareLiaison@svha.org.au
TracheostomyRevieweService@svha.org.au
