Instead of discharging patients right away, St. Mary's Health Care in Grand Rapids, Mich., will "discharge" patients to another floor called a "hospital within a hospital" to ease transitions, reports The Green Rapids Press.
Chronically ill patients who would likely be transferred between acute care and long-term acute care facilities several times instead will simply move to the fifth floor with 20 beds called the Great Lakes Specialty Hospital, according to hospital officials.
"The hospital within a hospital" is designed for patients who can be safely discharged from Saint Mary's but still need specialty treatment, such as patients with multiple injuries or pulmonary or multiple organ complications.
The effort to improve transitional care costs about $6.7 million, The Green Rapids Press notes. But the new fifth-floor-based hospital will add almost 90 jobs.
St. Mary's may find the project is worth the price, as nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have found that transitional care coordination can reduce readmissions.
"Having this new unit onsite will greatly help patients who need specialty long-term care," Saint Mary's COO Randy Wagner said in a statement.
For more information:
- read The Green Rapids Press article