The patient has been hospitalized since 5 Feb and is likely to be so for the next several months until part of his skull can be replaced. He has been moved from facility to facility and is now being discharged without a plan for addressing his needs.
1. Find out if the hospital he's in now actually has any Patient Advocates to provide inter-facility coordination. In my area, one hospital has what it calls a Nurse Navigator to help guide patients with options and decisions. Someone in this capacity would have an overview of what's available in that hospital chain but I'm assuming with other short and long term care hospital facilities as well.
This is a big Catholic chain of hospitals. I think you might try nonprofits, especially Catholic hospitals, as in my experience, they're more caring and more likely to have a broader perspective on options.
2. Check out long term acute care facilities; I think this is probably the closest to what he needs. There would be an insurance coverage issue here as well.
3. If you're not familiar with his insurance coverage, you or someone else will have to be as it may be that he'll need more care than insurance will cover.
Does he have any Medigap or supplemental insurance? If not, does he have the resources for long term care?
4. The MediLodge chain has segued into specialties at the various sites. One seems to focus on rehab for knee replacements. Another focuses solely on respiratory related issues. I was told by an Admin staffer that most of their patients will never leave there until they pass. So this particular branch of the chain focuses on long term care, vs. the other with short term care patients.
You might try contacting the corporate HQ of Medilodge to find out if there are any that specifically will take someone with the head injury he has.
5. I would think the surgeon(s) who performed the operation would know what kind of care would be best, so they could help identify his next placement as they would know what's needed now and in the future. And they should be able to make recommendations; some of them work at different facilities, short and long term, and have a better idea of what's available.
Good luck; this sounds like a real challenge to find the right facility.
I knew it had to be something to relieve the IC pressure but wasn’t aware of this procedure.
This depends on what insurance the person has as well.
I am thinking the person needs either rehab or skilled nursing home care.
JoAnn is correct, hospitals don’t work that way anymore.
If you can provide details we can better help you.