Healthcare Headlines Blog
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October 9, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
The most common hospital setting in America is one that provides short-term acute care for patients with pressing health issues – emergencies brought on by an acute illness or an accident. The immediate objective is to stabilize patients and help them recover as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, not all patients can recover quickly. They need a transitional care hospital.
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September 11, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
Reducing Rehospitalizations: What to Focus on Next
Here is a mini-roadmap on what to focus on next for this important initiative. Reducing rehospitalizations is the right thing to do for patient care – we all know this. But with task forces on performance improvement initiatives ranging from infections to patient satisfaction, it can be difficult to know where to focus efforts for the greatest impact.
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July 29, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
Patients, their family members and friends are often overwhelmed during care transitions so we have compiled some frequently asked questions about our transitional care hospitals. Whether you are a patient, loved one or healthcare professional, here are a few things about our transitional care hospitals you should know:
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July 10, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
At Kindred we understand that when people are discharged from a traditional hospital, they often need continued care in order to recover completely. That’s where our Transitional Care Hospitals come in.
Many medically-complex patients benefit from extended recovery time. Our patients receive that much needed care through treatment delivered according to their individual needs. Our physicians see patients daily to assure the best outcomes possible. Our goal is to help each patient reach the highest level of recovery before being discharged.
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July 8, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
Helping others recognize the signs of a stroke can shorten the time before a person gets treatment, and faster medical treatment can minimize long-term effects or prevent death.
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June 18, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
Aphasia is a little-known language disorder that affects nearly one-third of stroke victims. It occurs when there is damage to the communications hub in the left side of the brain. While aphasia disrupts communication skills, it does not affect a person’s thinking skills.
There are many types of aphasia, but the most general categories are receptive and expressive aphasia. With receptive aphasia, the person can hear a voice or read print, but may not understand the meaning of the message. With expressive aphasia, the person knows what he or she wants to say yet has difficulty communicating it to others.
Someone with receptive aphasia may:
- Have difficulty comprehending what others say
- Have difficulty with reading comprehension
- Be unaware that they are using words incorrectly
Someone with expressive aphasia may:
- Be able to understand what others say
- Have difficulty saying what they are thinking
- Speak in a jumbled manner
- Say a word different than the one they want to say
- Have difficulty writing
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May 29, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
It is widely recognized by policymakers and payers that our nation’s healthcare system is fragmented, creating gaps in care for patients. Researchers believe that part of this fragmentation is a result of the separate payments furnished by Medicare for each provider type that a patient may encounter during a single care episode.
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May 27, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
What is an Accountable Care Organization (ACO)?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) broadly defines ACOs as “groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients.” The ultimate goal of this care coordination is to streamline services and ensure that patients get the right care at the right time with better clinical outcomes. A secondary goal is to create savings to the Medicare program by eliminating duplicate services, medical errors and preventable rehospitalizations.
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April 15, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
The typical stay at a traditional hospital is five days. At Kindred Transitional Care Hospitals, the length of stay may be measured in weeks, not days. Why? Because we know that not all patients can recover in five days or less. Some have underlying conditions that make illnesses or other conditions harder to treat. Others are still too ill to return home.
At Kindred Hospitals, we offer a range of services to help patients who need additional time to recover, and the length of the stay depends on the needs of the patient. This includes the specialized services of our Subacute Units, where we work with patients who have an acute illness or injury or worsening of a disease but no longer need the aggressive level of care provided in a hospital. We offer short-term comprehensive inpatient medical care and rehabilitation that is designed to get the patient home or to a facility such as a skilled nursing center.
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April 1, 2014
By Kindred Healthcare
Terah Hatter can sum up her job in one word – amazing. Her job, she says, “is about caring.”
“It’s an honor to walk beside the patient and family to help them through a difficult time,” says Hatter, LMSW, a social worker for, which is an affiliate of Kindred at Home and an agency that provides home health, hospice and private duty nursing care in Texas.
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