Differences Between Acute Care & Long-Term Care

For some people, illness or advancing age require acute care or long-term care. These two forms of health care differ from each other but are interrelated, and the lines between them are increasingly blurring. The patient's situation and medical needs determine which type of care is needed.

Long-Term Care

• Long-term care is generally required by people whose chronic illness, physical disability or mental disorder makes it difficult for them to take care of their own basic needs. Treatments are typically specific to the patient's symptoms, and they might include rehabilitation. Long-term care can be provided by a nurse or other health-care practitioner, and it might take place in the patient's residence or in a facility or institution.

Acute Care

• Unlike long-term care for patients with chronic conditions, acute care is required when a patient needs treatment for a brief but severe, medical condition. Examples include recovery from surgery or accidents and other types of trauma. Acute care is typically administered by specialized medical practitioners in a hospital, and it can involve areas such as intensive care and/or emergency medicine. The ultimate goal of acute care is to stabilize the patient's condition to allow for discharge from the hospital, with recovery finishing at home.

Relationship Between Acute and Long-Term Care

• In a report commissioned by the Milbank Medical Fund, writer Robin I. Stone outlines the relationship between acute care and long-term care, noting that the lines between the two were blurring within the confines of the American health-care system. Some patients who require long-term care also need acute care in cases of illness or trauma. Because of these and other situations, acute care and specialized rehabilitation is increasingly moving out of the hospital and into non-hospital settings that have traditionally been used exclusively for long-term care.

A Growing Need

• Perhaps the most common type of long-term care facilities are nursing homes for the elderly. As the baby boom generation ages, the need for these types of facilities will increase substantially. According to the website for Medicare, approximately 12 million U.S. seniors will require long-term care by 2020. Although 70 percent of the elderly who need long-term care will receive it from family and friends, a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicates that Americans who reach 65 will have a 40 percent chance of residing in a nursing home, while 10 percent of those in nursing homes will stay there five years or more.