 | Doug Stark
is president of ComfortCare Homes, Inc. ComfortCare provides long-term care for the memory impaired at all levels of care and function in elegant, single-family residential homes. Born out of the Stark family's experience with Alzheimer's they have grown to 25 homes with 8 in Wichita and 17 in Nebraska and Virginia. A native of Wichita, Doug attended Wichita public schools and the University of Kansas. He served for 12 years as a Big Brother and has been a member of Wichita Rotary for 19 years. He is board member and Treasurer of Kansas Health Ethics. Doug can be contacted through his office at 7701 E. Kellogg, Suite #490, 67207, by calling (316) 685-3322, or by sending an e-mail to comfortcarehomes@aol.com |
Senior Living
2003-06-01 16:04:00
Skilled therapy treatments
: Are the same therapy treatments available in a licensed residential family care home as in an assisted living center or skilled nursing home?
ANSWER: The answer to your question for the most part is yes; it just depends on how the therapies are carried out and by whom. No residential family care home, and for that matter, most assisted living centers, have on site set-up and the certified personnel to perform skilled therapy treatments such as physical therapy and rehabilitation, speech therapy, wound care, breathing treatments, etc. But it does not mean that the residents of an assisted living center or family care home don't have access to these services, they are just performed by outside agencies like home health providers. It is true that many of your large skilled nursing facilities that are designed after a medical model of care (as opposed to a social model) do have in house facilities and full-time or part-time personnel to perform the doctor's order for a skilled therapy treatment. The fact of the matter is that larger more institutional facilities usually have anywhere from 90 to 160 beds or more and cater to a population more prone to receiving routine treatments, making it affordable to provide these therapies in house. That is not what has driven the explosive growth of residential family care homes and assisted living facilities. These two relatively new concepts were developed primarily after social models with the goal being to provide its residents a very natural, less institutional, home like environment. The main difference between assisted living centers and residential family care homes is size and numbers. Most assisted living centers have anywhere from 26 to 60 beds with some more, whereas family care homes are single family residential homes where between 5 and 8 residents share the home in a family-like atmosphere. For many residents (like the memory impaired that live in one of our homes) the low stress familiar homey environment is in itself therapeutic, as they are dealing primarily with issues of over stimulation and behaviors, and are less in need of skilled care or therapies. For the cognitively intact resident (or as some describe the frail elderly) who want the autonomy of having their own apartment with the ability to lock the door at night, yet desires the social community of living with their contemporaries and having their meals prepared in the dining room, an assisted living center is ideal. In both of these environments if a physician should order a skilled therapy most likely a home health agency would be summoned to perform the service. Since most home health agencies are Medicare certified and most family care homes and assisted living centers are not, another advantage is having the service billed to Medicare.
