Long-term care: A closer look

With skilled medical professionals and treatment services on site, long-term skilled nursing offers the highest level of care available outside of a hospital. For those individuals who don’t need hospitalization, but they need the kind of care and help offered by long-term skilled nursing, and with it, they can lead fulfilling, relatively independent lives.

When a senior’s functional capacity for daily living is diminished by chronic health issues, long-term illness or a prolonged recovery, a system of professional care in a residential setting is called for.

Usually, long-term skilled nursing includes:

• 24-hour residential setting
• RNs, CNAs, LPNs, physicians and specialists
• Coordination with physicians and pharmacy
• Rehabilitation therapy
• Dietary services addressing resident needs and preferences
• Three nutritious daily meals, plus snacks
• Social and recreational activities
• Family counsel meetings that integrates the family into each resident’s plan for care

In addition to medical services, you’ll find a staff and a setting entirely focused on helping each resident with the tasks of daily living:

• Bathing and personal hygiene
• Dressing
• Mobility and transportation
• Meals
• Medication management

Isn’t that a nursing home?
Sometimes the term “nursing home” is used, and it’s not inaccurate. Senior living communities that offer a continuum of care will include long-term skilled nursing as part of their continuum of care, and generally don’t refer to the services as a “nursing home.”

It’s important to remember that long-term skilled nursing is about wellness and helping residents be as independent as possible. Most residents benefit from the high level of medical care and daily living assistance, and are thus able to maintain a satisfying quality of life. They engage socially and pursue hobbies and interests. And in many cases, they thrive.

Read more here to help determine if skilled nursing services are the right fit for your loved one.

For more information about long-term skilled nursing in Benedictine fill out the information form below or visit our locations page to find a community near you.