Recently the newly constructed Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute invited the managers of At Home Nursing Care’s home health care agency to tour the 52 bed physical therapy and occupational therapy inpatient center. It’s located adjacent to Palomar Hospital in Escondido and was just constructed in partnership with the hospital.
The facility, which is actually run under contract by Kindred Health Care, is recommended for people who need three hours a day of physical therapy or occupational therapy. This compares to more traditional skilled nursing facilities which may offer therapy a few times a week for less than 3 hours.
A rehabilitation stay at the institute could come just after a hospital stay and before home health care services. All of the rooms are private, and patients are not only from Palomar Hospital.
Patients must agree to and be appropriate for this level of intensive 3 hour after injury care to be admitted and have their services covered by insurance.
The goal is to keep patients for about five days, and then 80% of the time to discharge them to their own homes for continued support, possibly with at home physical therapy or occupational therapy. (At Home Nursing Care can provide in home physical or occupational therapy through our Medicare Certified line of services.)
Among the interesting advancements at the institute are multiple ADL (Activities of Daily Living) rooms, where patients are trained to mimic the same activities of daily living they would in a home, such as doing laundry, bathing or washing their hands. This insures a more smooth transition to home.
The institute has a car in the gym specifically designed to measure and practice a patient’s ability to transfer into and out of a vehicle, one of the goals of physical therapy and occupational therapy after an injury or fall.
The Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute caters to neuro-spine injuries along with orthopedic rehabilitation, but they do not accept psyche patients. (Someone with mild cognitive impairment may still meet the admission criteria as long as the therapy threshold can be met safely.) Patients who give up on the three hours per day may be transferred to a more traditional skilled nursing facility, but the idea is to avoid that.
A “soft open” launch was held in June as some insurance contracts are still being finalized. Medicare patients are accepted and the institute caters only to adult clients. The facility has dialysis in house and x-ray services in house, leading to faster and more convenient treatments for patients.
To take a virtual tour of the Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute, click here.
To download a brochure, click here.