Skilled nursing facilities offer a variety of services to target the different types of care that are needed and to satisfy the diverse requirements of their patients. It is important to investigate the various services that different nursing facilities offer if you are in the process of considering different nursing facilities as potential options. This will allow you to ensure that the one you choose will fulfill the requirements that you might be looking for or haven’t even considered yet. The following is a list of five services that should be looked for in a skilled nursing facility.
1. Choices Regarding the Kind of Medical Attention That Is Required
It’s possible that each person has unique requirements that call for specialized medical services and therapies tailored specifically to their condition. Care that is either short-term or long-term may be required for the patient in order to receive the appropriate amount of rehabilitation services.
This is because the level of recovery needed by the patient from their particular accident or disease can vary. It is crucial to locate a nursing home that offers options that meet the degree of care your loved one needs in order to ensure a seamless transition and recovery process while choosing a nursing facility for them. In order to accommodate patients’ varying rates of recovery, skilled nursing institutions typically provide both acute and subacute care to their patients.
Services of Care for a Short-Term Duration
The amount of time it takes to recover and the level of difficulty involved in doing so are both variables that can be affected by the severity of the functional limitations faced by the patient. In order to accommodate patients’ varying rates of recovery, skilled nursing institutions typically provide both acute and subacute care to their patients. Acute care can be characterized as a process of intensive rehabilitation that is meant to assist patients in swiftly returning to the level of functioning they had previous to their illness or injury. Sub-acute care, on the other hand, does the same thing as acute care, but it is typically a less demanding approach that is geared toward individuals who might find an acute recovery process to be too taxing.
Sub-acute care serves those individuals. Both of these methods are geared toward assisting the patient in regaining their power and mobility to the greatest extent feasible, if not completely. People who are unable to return to a completely independent living environment might not be able to do so for a variety of reasons and might benefit more from exploring the possibility of receiving long-term care services.
Services of Care for the Long Term
It is possible that your loved one may benefit more from receiving long-term care given the scope of their need. There are a variety of long-term care options available to meet the requirements of a wide range of circumstances. These possibilities include nursing homes, assisted living facilities, rest homes, and numerous other care options for seniors along with other senior care options.
BSH Care is one of the few nursing centers that provide integrated in-patient rehabilitation and long-term care, making it one of the most desirable places to receive medical treatment. This facilitates a smoother transition for the patient, which allows them to remain in familiar settings, making the recovery process significantly more comfortable for them.
2. Services of a Rehabilitative Nature
The severity of the patient’s illness or damage will determine, to some extent, the types of rehabilitation therapies they will require when they have recovered. There is a diverse range of rehabilitation services available to meet a variety of care requirements throughout the duration of the recovery process, whether it be short-term or long-term.
At BSH Care, we have a strong staff of qualified and experienced nurses, physicians, and rehabilitation specialists who work hard to ensure that your family member is well taken care of and is provided with a comfortable route toward recovery.
The members of our Care Coordination Team collaborate to create individualized care plans for each patient. These plans may include a variety of rehabilitation treatments as well as medical treatment. This is tailored especially to meet the requirements of each individual. The following is a list of some of the rehabilitation services that BSH Care offers to meet a variety of client requirements:
- Physical therapy helps the patient get back to their previous level of skill and function as well as they can.
- Occupational therapy is when a patient does everyday tasks to regain, improve, and keep up the skills they need for work and daily life.
- Speech therapy helps people who have trouble communicating because of a stroke or something else naturally get the care, treatment, and support they need.
- Respiratory care is individualized therapy that helps the patient breathe better and improves their respiratory system.
- Pain Management: Pain management nurses help patients with chronic pain or pain from an injury or illness that causes them a lot of pain and could hurt their quality of life if it isn’t taken care of properly.
- Stage IV Wound Care: Treatment for wounds that are very bad and have caused a lot of tissue loss or damage. Some examples of medical ancillary services are podiatry, optometry, and dentistry, which treat specific parts of the body.
- 24-Hour Emergency Care: Emergency services are easy to get to right away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Hospice Care: Hospice patients and their families can get both palliative care and care for a short time when they need a break.
3. Taking Care of Medications
A common service in nursing homes is giving out medications. Skilled nursing facilities should have a clear way to handle and give out medications. Registered nurses and licensed practitioners must carefully keep track of each patient’s new, old, and unnecessary medications to make sure they get the best care possible.
This means figuring out what each person needs and keeping track of their progress and reactions so that you can figure out if you need to change the dosage or type of medication.
Since each person has different needs, each resident should have personalized paperwork that lists the medicines they take, any drug interactions they have, and any allergies they have to medicines. This paperwork should match up with a care plan that tells when and how much medicine they should take.
4. Services for Health and Well-Being
A well-skilled nursing facility will offer more than just medical care. It will also have other high-quality services and amenities to help the patient’s physical and mental health. BSH Care provides a number of health and wellness services, such as:
- Personal and Custodial Care: Help with things like walking, getting dressed, bathing, and using the toilet.
- High-Quality Meals and Nutritional Services: A full menu of meals that the patient can choose from, as well as a dietician.
- Recreational and social services, such as music programs, exercise classes, painting classes, and wine-and-cheese socials.
- Features: It has appliances, cable TV, a phone, and WiFi.
- Spiritual and religious services are held once a month: a Catholic Mass and a Protestant service, the Eucharist served by Ministers of Communion once a week, and a rosary service once a week.
- Haircuts, manicures and pedicures, and more are all part of cosmetic services.
5. Insurance for Health Care and Financial Services
Even with insurance, sometimes medical care and services can be very expensive. Some skilled nursing facilities have different policies and programs that work with insurance companies to make sure that patients get the care they need at a price they can afford.
Some skilled nursing facilities allow different insurance coverage for the different treatments and services that are needed, and some may even offer certain amenities or services for free. As an example, BSH Care gives its residents free access to a dietician and pays for some types of medical services that aren’t directly medical.
Find the Right Skilled Nursing Facility to Start With
When looking for a nursing home for a loved one, it’s important to look at the services they offer to make sure that your choice will meet their needs. A highly skilled nursing facility should offer a wide range of high-quality services through a team of doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered dieticians, rehabilitation specialists, full-time nurse case managers, and a full-time social worker for sub-acute patients.
Each person has different needs, which a nursing home may or may not be able to meet. Download our Nursing Home Evaluation Checklist if you are still looking for the right nursing home. This will help you make sure you find the right one.