Pros of Nursing Homes With Intermediate Care

Few patients would like to spend time in the hospital. Many cannot wait to return home, a place they consider to be much more comfortable. However, there can be various reasons why the patient may not be medically ready to fully return to the home and achieve full self-sufficiency. A compromise of the patient's need for independence and medical care comes when a patient receives intermittent care, often at a nursing home facility. This type of nursing home care has several benefits.

Independence

• Intermittent care provides patients with more independence, which might be preferable to many nursing home patients. Having greater independence increases the quality of life for the patient because the patient has more control over how her day is structured, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Cost Reduction

• Intermittent care can be cheaper than other forms of care since some patients need less administration and other resources to effectively recover in a nursing care facility, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The amount of resources provided to the patient can be based on need. Monetary cuts to nursing homes has been a cause of concern ever since the Balanced Budget Act caused four of the five biggest nursing home chains to file for bankruptcy, according to PBS.

Decision Making

• Intermittent care removes many of the challenges of deciding whether or not the patient is ready to be released home. Many health care practitioners can send patients home who might be ready for a return to everyday home life but still have some medical concerns that the physician would like to continue monitoring, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Patient recovery can be very unpredictable for even very experienced physicians.

Intermittent Care Effectiveness

• There seems to be no reason not to allow patients to receive intermittent care in a nursing home facility instead of remaining in the hospital. Studies conducted by the Norwegian Department of Public Health and General Practice found that patients who were sent to intermittent care recovered at the same rate as patients who remained in a hospital setting.

Focused Services

• With intermittent care, focus can be taken away from less important administrative tasks and can instead be focused on services that the patients really need, according to Our Parents. For example, one intermittent care program at a nursing home in California was able to keep their patients more vaccinated and resistant to communicable diseases than other medical care facilities.

Regulations

• Nursing homes are regulated facilities that provide standardized care for patients. The most recent overhaul in nursing home regulations was conducted in 1985. More regulations will likely be created for intermittent nursing home care when this time of care becomes more prevalent.