Patients' Choice Swing Bed

Swing Bed (or Skilled Nursing Care) is a Medicare program designed to provide additional inpatient care to those needing extra time to heal or strengthen before returning home.

The term swing bed came from the idea that the patient will “swing”, or transition, from inpatient acute care through the program to return home to the same level of independence prior to entering the hospital.

Swing Bed allows physicians to swing the level of care from “acute” to “skilled rehabilitation.”

When is Swing Bed appropriate?
Often the swing bed is used for patients who have had surgery such as hip or other joint replacement. Individuals who have had these types of procedures can be transferred to Patients’ Choice Swing Bed.

In addition to major surgery, a lengthy illness can also result in the need for swing bed care.

A patient can transfer from a larger facility to swing bed or, if already in Patients' Choice Medical Center of Erin, simply change rooms to receive swing bed care.

Physical Therapy
Patients’ Choice Swing Bed unit’s top priority is to assist patients in recovering their independence and mobiity through intensive theraputic sessions.

Our skilled physical therapists evaluate each patient’s capacity and develop a program to meet achievable goals.Therapists work with each patient employing techniques to lead to recovering pain-free movement or to teach patients how to handle equipment that allows them to return to some level of self sufficiency.

Treatment may include theraputic exercises, endurance training, training in activities of daily living, massage, joint mobilization, applications of heat and cold or wound care.

Occupational, speech and respiratory therapy are provided to swing bed patients. All therapies have short and long term goals for their patients to achieve while in the program.

Who qualifies for Swing Bed?
• Patients must have at least a three-day stay as an acute patient within the last 30 days before transferring or transitioning to the Swing Bed program.
• Patients must need on-going monitoring and require rehabilitative therapy.
• There are no age restrictions.
• Swing Bed is routinely considered for patients who have had hip or knee surgery and need additional therapy before returning home.

Swing Bed Referral Process
Referrals to Swing Bed come from the attending physician once it has been determined that the patient no longer requires acute care level of services, will still have a skilled reason to stay in the hospital setting.

The Swing Bed case manager reviews medical records and confers with therapy staff and the patient’s nurses to determine the skill need.

For out-of-house referrals, the case manager makes a decision about the patient’s skill level based on information from the referring facility. There are no age restrictions.
Swing Bed is routinely considered for patients who have had hip or knee surgery and need additional therapy before returning home.

Payment
Medicare and privagte insurance pay for skilled Swing Bed services. To qualify for Medicare admission to Swing Bed, the patient must have had an acute hospital stay of at least three days.

For insurance patients, authorization for skilled Swing Bed must be obtained from the insurance carrier prior to admission. After admission, the case manager will be in communication with the insurance carrier about length of stay covered.For privatge pay patients, the patient or patient’s representative agrees to pay full charges following discharge from the Swing Bed program.