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After-Hospital Care
Before you leave the hospital, your doctor and discharge planner will talk to you about your after hospital care. This includes instructions for how to take care of yourself at home, your home health needs or your transfer to another facility.
To make sure your transition from the hospital goes smoothly, be sure you understand the next steps in your care. For example, when you leave the hospital, you might go:
• Home, with no needed services
• Home, with help from a caregiver
• Home,withhelpfromHomeHealth
• To a Rehabilitation setting (such as
Skilled Nursing or Rehab Facility) Care a er your hospital stay may include:
Home Health services can help you recover from illness or injury in the comfort of home. Home Health covers a wide range of healthcare services:
• Personal care: including bathing, dressing and eating
• Healthcare:physical,speechand occupational therapy or skilled nursing
• It can also include home care services such as assistance with cooking, cleaning, other housekeeping and monitoring one’s medication regimen.
Home health care professionals are o en licensed practical nurses, therapists, or home health aides. One of the bene ts of this type of care is that it can help you follow your treatment plan exactly as your doctor has directed.
Continuing Care Retirement Communities are for individuals who may be independent now, but are expected to require Assisted Living in the future. Residents can transfer to di erent care within their current long-term community, easing the transition process.
Assisted Living is designed to provide assistance with basic activities of daily living such as bathing, grooming and dressing. Some states also allow assisted living to o er medication assistance and/or reminders. ese communities o er a more home-like atmosphere and provide an independent lifestyle with customized assistance such as:
• Assistance with daily tasks
• 24-hour care sta
• Medication assistance management
• Incontinence management
• Restaurant-style dining/Meal prep
• Apartment cleaning and linen services
• Local transportation services &
activities
Memory Care Facilities are highly specialized in caring for people who
are living with the e ects of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. e focus of memory care communities is on under- standing each individual resident in order to provide comfort and security
in a homelike environment. Memory care facilities usually o er:
• Sta trained in positive validation
• Safe,secureandupli ingenvironment
• Spaciousindoor/outdoorareas
• Specially designed ‘peaceful areas’
• Life enrichment and specialized
cognitive stimulation exercises
LTAC stands for Long Term Acute Care. ey specialize in the treatment of patients with serious medical conditions that require care on an ongoing basis but no longer require intensive or diagnostic care. ese patients are typically discharged from the intensive care units, but require more care than they can receive in a rehabilitation center, skilled nursing facility, or at home. LTAC care includes:
• Prolonged ventilator use or weaning
• Dialysisforchronicrenalfailure
• Intensiverespiratorycare
• MultipleIVmedicationsor
transfusions
• Complex wound and burn care
Rehabilitation services are o ered
in acute-care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, clinical and o ce practices, skilled-care nursing facilities and sports medicine clinics. Rehabilitation programs vary in length and intensity, but commonly help people who have experienced a major injury, disorder
or illness to regain the skills needed
to return to everyday living. There are three main types of rehabilitation– physical, occupational and speech therapies. Rehabilitation Hospitals require patients to endure high- intensity inpatient rehabilitation care and meet the following requirements: • Need two of the three types of therapy
(physical, occupational or speech)
• Need 24-hour physician and nursing
services
• Are able to participate in three hours
of therapy per day
Skilled Nursing Facilities provide highly skilled medical care and personalized assistance from trained medical professionals. A nursing home is an option for those who cannot be cared for at home and need supervised care. Services Include:
• Assistance with daily tasks
• 24-hour Medical care sta
• Medication management
• Continence management
• Local transportation services
• Physical/speech/occupationaltherapy
Hospice Care is for people whose life expectancy is six months or less, and involves pain and symptom relief rather than ongoing curative measures. e goal of hospice care is to help people who are dying to do so with dignity,
in comfort and at peace. is care is provided by health professionals that support the entire family and typically provide speech and physical therapy, therapeutic massage, dietary assistance, and personal care services including grief counseling for family.
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AFTER HOSPITAL CARE