All Roads Lead to Home
How Home Health Care Services Support Rehabilitation and Recovery
Following a hospital stay due to injury, illness, or procedure, it's natural that you or your loved one would ask, "Where do we go from here?" While immediate considerations such as required therapies, medications, and possible assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) are what come to mind first, we also know the answer you or your loved one wants is: "Home, when possible."
In some cases, "when possible" is less feasible than in others. Chronic, life-threatening conditions or an inability to perform ADLs may require you or your loved one to explore long-term rehabilitation options. However, manageable conditions and a capacity to perform or relearn ADLs are ideal situations for short-stay rehabilitation services that transition to in home health care. The recovery process won't be completed overnight, and rehabilitation can be a difficult road, but St. Clare Living Community is here to support your every step.
The recovery road begins with short-stay rehabilitation at St. Clare. After admission, you or your loved one are supported by a team including an admission coordinator, a social worker, nurses and nursing assistants, therapists, and a dietitian. Activity staff members will work closely with you or your loved one's physician, as well as with a certified nurse practitioner and rounding physicians, to establish an individualized plan for personalized treatment goals to assist with recovery. By providing skilled nursing services as well as onsite physical, occupational, and speech therapy, staff can help you or your loved one with better pain control, improvements in range of motion, and an increased tolerance for exercise.
As a scheduled departure date from short-stay rehabilitation approaches, you or your loved one's social worker can help coordinate certified home care so the transition from short-stay rehabilitation to the comfort and familiarity of home is successful. This assistance includes identifying vendors, sources, and payment options for adaptive equipment or assistive devices such as wheelchairs, screen readers, hearing aids, and prosthetic devices, as well as assisting in obtaining these needed items to ensure that the recovery process continues after you or your loved one's discharge from short-stay rehabilitation. The ongoing process is manageable with the right support. You can depend on St. Clare’s experts to integrate new elements and necessary equipment into the process and to assist in every transition.
To maintain continuity of care that meets the goal of returning to the safest level of activity possible, homecare can be utilized to improve the success of the outcome and to help achieve the highest level of function for you or your loved one. Since some difficulties can't be predicted beforehand, nursing services and home health aide services can address concerns that may surface after the return home, as well as provide many additional services in order to sustain the functional ability gained during short-stay rehabilitation:
Nursing services include a physical assessment to obtain information regarding goals and needs, nail care, wound care, medication set-up, education on medication and wound care, communication with physicians, safety education, laboratory tests as ordered by a physician, and blood pressure checks.
Home health aide services include shower assistance, foot soaks, assistance with dressing, changing bed linens, housekeeping, meal preparation, nail care, skin care, and laundry service.
Home health care services can help ensure that you or your loved one's recovery continues once the transition from short-stay rehabilitation to home is complete by assisting with difficult daily activities, solving unforeseen problems associated with the transitional process, acting as a liaison between physicians and patients, and educating and empowering you or your loved one on best practices of self-care. Let in home health care be you or your loved one's copilot and navigator on the road to recovery, a road to home.