The medically complex and critically ill patient population now makes up 10% of the overall Medicare population, impacting four million individuals around the nation.1 These individuals experiencing debilitating illnesses require intensive and specialized care within a facility specifically equipped to meet their needs.
Long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) have continued to demonstrate favorable outcomes in treating and successfully discharging these high-acuity patients home or to a lower level of care. However, developing and integrating this specialized service line can be difficult without partnership from an expert.
Discover two of the key benefits LTACH joint-venture and contract management partnership has on hospital outcomes.
LTACH integration through a strategic partnership enables a hospital to identify patients best suited for long-term acute care. This ultimately helps reduce unnecessary treatment in another setting and provides the high-quality, specialized care needed to reduce rehospitalization risk and improve patient outcomes.
Further, a specialized LTACH partner will be able to identify qualified LTACH patients earlier, in turn improving outcomes and the overall patient experience. This is done by:
- Engaging and coordinating with executive sponsor physicians and care managers.
- Identifying and transferring LTACH-appropriate patients.
- Monitoring results through weekly performance report reviews with a hospital’s care management team.
Through this, an LTACH partner can help produce outcomes that appropriately decrease average length of stay and improve patient outcomes and financial performance for short-term acute care hospitals.
Appropriate utilization of an LTACH’s resources for treating critically ill patients helps to significantly reduce the risk of readmission compared to other post-acute settings, especially with the guidance of an experienced partner. These outcomes result from the use of a skilled interdisciplinary team of physicians and therapists.
Specific clinical positions that can play a critical role in treating the medically complex patient population include:
- Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs): SLPs provide a wide range of services to individuals receiving care in an LTACH. Since many patients have tracheostomies and/or are ventilator-dependent, the SLP plays a vital role in helping patients work on swallowing abilities and tolerance for voice prostheses.2
- Pulmonologists: LTACHs are in a unique position to care for complex pulmonary patients because they provide acute-level care to critically ill patients, with a particular competency for those with pulmonary issues.
The superior training, education and programming supplied by a qualified LTACH partner can generate a unified interdisciplinary team approach – leading to reduced readmission risk and superior patient care.
Read our whitepaper, “Benefits of LTACH Partnership for Hospital Success” to learn more about how partnership with Kindred can help your hospital lower post-acute average length of stay and reduce readmission risk, all while improving patient outcomes and satisfaction.
References:
- Jencks SF, Williams MV, Coleman EA. Rehospitalizations among patients in the Medicare fee-for-service program. N Engl J Med. 2009;360(14):1418-1428.
- ASHA (Ed.). Long-term Acute Care Hospitals. https://www.asha.org/slp/healthcare/ltac/.