Long-term acute care is a little understood concept to most - until they need it. Fortunately for Corpus Christi, our city is home to one of the best in the business. Kindred Hospital Corpus Christi offers long-term acute care for the catastrophically ill and is dedicated to providing hope, healing and recovery for the most medically complex patients. Patients who have such complicated medical conditions that when they are discharged from a traditional hospital they often need continued hospital care to recover completely.

Kindred hospitals are small, more specialized hospitals where these patients find a diversified medical staff of doctors and nurses and an interdisciplinary team of respiratory, rehabilitation and wound care specialists to manage and improve their multi-faceted needs individually. The Kindred Team of doctors, nurses, therapists and specialists apply intensely focused treatment plans to each patient based on their specific needs upon admission. Through the duration of the patient’s stay, which extends a month or longer due to his or her medical complexities, the Kindred Team carefully monitors each patient’s progress.

Kindred patients are different because of their medically complex conditions. The medical complications Kindred’s patients are admitted for might range from, but are not be limited to, dependence on a mechanical ventilator from which a short-term hospital was unable to wean the patient; pulmonary, cardiac or renal failure; serious wound complications; pressure ulcers; and infections. Whatever the medical problem, the attention given it is specialized at Kindred.

So who are these catastrophically ill patients Kindred exists to serve? Well many of them are people just like you – perfectly healthy without previous medical conditions who have some bad luck. Kindred Hospital serves as a safety net for these patients. A patient named Scott is an example. Scott went to a Kindred Hospital after a 20,000-pound trailer he was working on slipped off the jacks and landed on he and a co-worker. The two men were rushed to a short-term acute care hospital via ambulance where Scott nearly died three times. He was put on a ventilator, went into kidney failure and was treated for a massive abdominal wound. Once his condition stabilized, Scott’s family transferred him to Kindred Hospital where his ailing kidneys could be treated by the in-house dialysis unit.

Scott had a large surgical abdominal incision wound when he was admitted to Kindred in August. He was on dialysis for his kidneys and needed extensive rehabilitation. The Kindred Team of nurses, specialists and therapists set their recovery goals: to get Scott’s kidney’s functioning on their own, improve his abdominal wound and to rebuild his strength through rehab.

Though doctors expected it would be Christmas before Scott would be fit for discharge, the Kindred Team had achieved their goals by mid-September, less than a month after his admission to Kindred Hospital. Scott was discharged home to his wife and two young children with the expectation of continued rehabilitation. Scott walked out of Kindred with a walker to attend his son’s soccer game.

Another type of patient Kindred often cares for is people with pre-existing medical complications who take a turn for the worse and require higher levels of care. A patient named Phill is an example of this type of patient. Phill had a history of pulmonary disease and required constant oxygen when one day he had a heart attack and underwent open-heart surgery. After bouncing back and forth between short-term acute care hospitals and skilled nursing centers, Phill was transferred to Kindred Hospital.

Phill arrived at Kindred Hospital mid-May with heavy swelling in his legs, pulmonary and cardiac disease. Once admitted to Kindred, Phill received aggressive management of his pulmonary/lung disease and heart failure. In early June, Phill had progressed to the point that he only required oxygen at night. He was able to walk with the assistance of a walker and the fluid that was built up in his legs was gone.

Phill was discharged and returned home to his family after just over a month at Kindred saying, “Kindred Hospital saved my life. If it wasn’t for Kindred, I don’t think I’d be here today.”

While Scott and Phill were fortunate enough to be discharged home, some Kindred patients require additional care upon discharge. So in addition to the home, most patients are released to a subacute facility, a rehabilitation hospital or a skilled nursing facility for continued care. Should you or a loved one ever need long-term acute care, Kindred Hospital Corpus Christi would be honored to help.

For more information about Kindred Hospital Corpus Christi, visit us online at www.khcorpuschristi.com.