What is a Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH)?
What is a long-term acute care hospital?
When you have an accident, suffer a stroke or need surgery,
the first place you go is the hospital. There, the doctors
and nurses fix your injuries, perform your surgery and stabilize
your condition. Many times, after being stabilized at a hospital,
patients are too medically fragile to go home or to a rehabilitation
facility. Perhaps they have an underlying chronic disease, like
diabetes or heart disease, which delays the healing process.
That’s where a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) comes in.
Patients come to an LTACH for several weeks until they are well
enough to move on to the next level of their recovery.
How does a long-term acute care hospital differ from a hospital or nursing home?
The average length of stay for an LTACH patient is 25 days as compared
to a 4 to 5 day average in a hospital. An LTACH differs significantly
from a long-term care facility or nursing home. LTACH patients are much
sicker and may need cardiac monitoring, multiple IVs or even ventilators.
Doctors visit LTACH patients on a daily basis.
What types of diagnoses are treated at a long-term acute care hospital?
Many of the diagnoses treated in a hospital can be treated in an LTACH.
The most common diagnoses include respiratory and cardiac failure, septicemia
(systemic infection), and osteomyelitis (bone infection). Other conditions
treated include: peripheral vascular disease, pressure wounds, prolonged surgical
recuperation, burns, trauma, complicated fractures, head injury, spinal cord injury,
stroke and kidney failure (on dialysis).
What specialized services are available at a long-term acute care hospital?
The nurses, therapists and physicians at an LTACH have special expertise in
weaning people off of ventilators and treating complex wounds. LTACHs also
offer the full scope of services that are available in acute-care hospitals,
such as radiology, CT scans, MRI, cardiology and laboratory services.
At Good Shepherd Penn Partners’ long-term acute care hospital, physical rehabilitation is integral. Because patients at the LTACH often cannot withstand many hours of therapy per day, they receive a slower, more regimented therapy plan that takes into account their complex medical needs.
What type of clinicians provide care at a long-term acute care hospital?
The Good Shepherd Penn Partners Specialty Hospital at Rittenhouse emphasizes the team approach to our patients’ care.
While a physician leads the team, it is a care manager (either an RN or social worker) who acts as a facilitator and coordinates patient care. RNs and nursing assistants provide nursing care, and respiratory therapists address pulmonary needs. Physical, occupational and speech therapists help patients regain as much function as possible so they can get back to doing the things they love, like spending time with their families, working or other daily activities. Registered dietitians are available to monitor and counsel patients, and clinical psychology services and pastoral care lend patients and families necessary psychological, emotional and spiritual support.
Good Shepherd Penn Partners’ LTACH also offers Penn E-lert eICU, a state-of-the-art virtual ICU that is monitored by tele-intensivists. These are specially trained critical care doctors who use two-way audio/visual technologies to monitor patients from an off-site location. Patients are monitored throughout the night. Physicians have immediate access at all times, enhancing patient care and safety.
Good Shepherd Penn Partners Specialty Hospital at Rittenhouse
1800 Lombard Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146
877-9MY-REHAB (877-969-7342)
Good Shepherd Penn Partners Quick Links
