Intensive Care Recovery
Kindred Hospitals offer the intensive care recovery services that will help you or a loved one transition from the ICU to the next stage of care.
If you or a loved one are a patient in intensive care at a short-term acute care hospital, the staff’s goal is to stabilize your condition. But you or your loved one may require long-term intensive care to recover fully – the kind of care provided in a Kindred Hospital. We can provide your loved one with continued specialized care as we support them in meeting their recovery goals at their own pace.
What Is Intensive Care?
A patient in intensive care is there due to life-threatening illnesses or injuries, including complications from surgery, accidents, serious infections or several breathing issues.
Intensive care units are staffed by teams of specially trained clinicians and staff members. Depending on the condition being treated, an ICU staff may use a variety of medical equipment, including monitors, intravenous (IV) tubes, catheters, and breathing machines, to keep intensive care patients alive and stabilized during treatment. Some of these conditions can increase a patient’s risk of infection, necessitating a high level of monitoring and care.
Kindred long-term intensive care offers the same high-level specialized care as the intensive care units in short-term hospitals, but for a longer period of time.
Another form of high-level care is emergency care. In an emergency situation, patients are so sick or injured that they need to be seen and evaluated immediately. If they need additional specialized care after being stabilized in the ER, they are then sent to an intensive care unit.
Many patients continue to need this specialized care after a typical ICU stay. Kindred Hospitals offer this care and treats conditions including:
- Prolonged mechanical ventilation requiring weaning and pulmonary care
- Complex wound care
- Multiple drug-resistant resistant infections
- Complex medical conditions requiring daily physician management
- Major post-surgical complications
- Multiple concurrent acute and/or unstable illnesses
We specialize in the treatment and rehabilitation of post-intensive care and medically complex patients requiring continued intensive care, including specialized rehabilitation, in an acute hospital setting,” says Dr. Dean French, Chief Medical Officer. “Paired with our intensive care services, we provide a wide array of rehabilitation therapies to help patients progress to positive outcomes, regain function, and safely return home as quickly as their recovery allows.”
Intensive Care Services
We know that patients benefit from skilled and experienced clinicians, including physical, occupational, and speech therapists. Kindred provides specialized assessments and innovative therapy techniques, as well as individualized treatment based on the patient’s abilities and goals.
Kindred Hospitals provide an interdisciplinary approach to long-term intensive care, to help patients recover holistically.
Below is a list of the varied intensive care services we provide:
- Physician-led care model — Patients at Kindred are seen by a doctor every day. Their care plan is led by a physician who determines the course of treatment, therapy, and recovery. This differs from what a patient can expect to experience at a skilled nursing facility.
- Intensive care nursing — Our patients receive 24-hour nursing care, which includes assessment, planning, implementing, and evaluating of vital signs/IVFs/antibiotics/drips, critical labs and diagnostics, respiratory and cardiac equipment, catheters, trachs, and feeding tube care.
- Clinical Rehab Therapy — Physical Therapy (PT), Occupational Therapy (OT), and Speech & Language Therapy (ST) are all offered at Kindred. Depending on the stability of the patient’s medical condition, they will be able to participate in any or all of these types of therapy. No minimal level of therapy participation is required for admission. Therapy intensity often accelerates as the patient’s medical condition improves.
- Team communication — The interdisciplinary care approach between physician, nursing, therapy, respiratory, pharmacy, and nutrition services is vital to achieving the best outcome for our patients.
Learn more about our other intensive care services:
Success Spotlight: George's Story
Looking Forward After a Workplace Explosion
George is a process mechanic who nearly lost his life to a horrendous workplace accident.
“I was at work one day when there was a sudden explosion,” George shared. “The blast nearly killed me — it broke nine bones in my body, including my hips.”
George was rushed to the ER, where physicians managed to stabilize his condition and begin the arduous process of literally piecing George back together. After enduring numerous surgeries, George first went to Kindred Hospital for long-term intensive care and recovery. He was there for six weeks before coming to Kindred Rehab Hospital for specialized rehabilitation.
Due to being immobilized for five weeks while his shattered hips healed, George was very weak and suffered from extreme muscle atrophy. Despite this, his attitude was upbeat and positive. He put his heart and mind into his physical and occupational rehab therapy sessions.
Sylvia, George’s primary occupational therapist, shared what the team did to help him. “In OT, We worked primarily with George’s left elbow and increasing his range of motion. He was also very weak, so we worked on strengthening his arms and hand muscles, as well as fine motor skills so he would be able to return to playing the guitar. George did great with relearning all the things we take for granted, like bathing and dressing.”
George updated us on his progress after intensive care at Kindred. “I’ve got a ways to go still, but at least now I can walk again, even though I need a little help from a walker,” George says. “I can climb stairs, I can take care of myself, and frankly, I consider myself very lucky to be alive. I owe my thanks to everyone at Kindred for the excellent services and care I received — and for my recovery.
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