What Is Post Acute Care & Its Benefits
If you’re asking yourself, What is post acute care, and what are its benefits?, we’d like to provide a brief overview for you here. In short, post acute care facilities include long-term hospitals, inpatient rehab facilities, home health agencies, and skilled nursing facilities.
In the past several years, payers such as Medicare and health insurance companies have shifted more risk to hospitals who treat patients. As a matter of fact, many insurance companies are no longer paying for readmissions within a certain time period following a discharge. This means that if a patient is discharged and ends up back in the hospital within close proximity of discharge for the same or a related issue, the hospital absorbs the cost of the second inpatient stay. These guidelines are designed to improve patient care in hospitals and ensure all issues are addressed and treated adequately before the patient is discharged.
How Hospitals Ensure Patient Recovery Following an Acute Illness
In response, hospitals have begun developing strategic partnerships with post-acute care facilities. Patients who no longer need inpatient hospital care for an acute issue are often discharged to a post acute care setting to ensure they receive appropriate transitional attention while they recover. Transitional care in these settings may include dressing changes, medication management, oxygen administration, physical therapy, restorative therapy, pain management, monitoring, and more.
Benefits of Post Acute Care
Patients who are discharged to a post acute care setting are less likely to be readmitted to the hospital. They are closely monitored for complications or changes in condition, which improves the likelihood of catching new or recurring problems early and treating them in an outpatient (clinic) setting. Post acute care is also to the advantage of the patient because experienced professionals are available to answer questions and assist with tasks that might be challenging at first.
Post acute care is also favorable over a long acute care stay. Post acute settings are more like home and offer more activities and services for long-term stays.
To learn more about the best options for post acute care in Arizona – including home health services – we invite you to discover the benefits we offer at Santé.
