Nursing Home Rehab Centers
Posted by Patti on March 25th, 2007 / Print This Post
Nursing homes are accepting more and more short term rehab patients, and designing special units just for this population.
With billions of dollars at stake, nursing homes across the nation are rushing to reinvent themselves to compete with hospitals and affiliated rehabilitation facilities for short-term, higher-paying patients like Smyth. They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on renovations and additions and new features like aromatherapy, brightly colored decor, spacious therapy gyms and Internet cafes to try to create a new, warmer, less institutional image.Most often, they are providing postoperative rehabilitation for knee- and hip-joint patients, but heart attack and stroke victims are also coming in for therapy. Though many are retirees, others are still in the work force and some patients are as young as their 20s.
Offering treatment at lower costs, nursing homes are undeterred by criticism that they do not have the expertise that hospitals do, and that some data show a decline in the quality of their rehab care.
Too bad they can’t put this effort into the section where the elderly live. Too bad the elderly don’t rate this kind of service.
I understand the need to have a good design for short term stays, but this bothers me a lot- the very people who so deserve well designed and appointed surroundings aren’t getting this.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
We have a short stay unit…and now that I think about it…this unit is better. The residents have more room, more options. It’s not better LOOKING, just better for younger people. I think they have computers and big TVs and a gym- small one. I haven’t worked over there yet cause aides need some sort of special training. Its been open for 2 years now.