What Is Long-Term Acute Care?

Kindred long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals are acute care hospitals specializing in the treatment and rehabilitation of patients who require a longer hospital stay to recover from complex medical conditions.

Kindred has three LTAC hospitals in South Florida: Kindred Hospital – Coral Gables, Kindred Hospital – – Hollywood, and Kindred Hospital – Ft. Lauderdale.

Kindred Hospitals:

Are acute care hospitals. LTAC hospitals are licensed, certified and accredited.

Offer specialized care. LTAC hospitals specialize in providing a range of services that is narrower and deeper than a typical general hospital.

Provide treatment and rehabilitation. LTAC hospitals are treatment centers rather than diagnostic centers. STAC hospitals are known for their ability to stabilize a patient’s condition, and to perform a myriad of diagnostic studies to determine the underlying cause of a patient’s complaints. Once the diagnosis is secure and treatment has been selected, the patient is generally discharged to the appropriate setting, depending on their needs. Treatment is carried out in home health, skilled nursing facilities, independent rehab facilities or LTAC hospitals, depending on whether the patient’s needs can be managed by family, nurses, rehab therapists, or physicians, respectively. Unlike general acute care hospitals, rehabilitation is an integral part of the treatment of most LTAC patients.

Care for patients with complex medical conditions. While LTAC patients are often post op, more surgery is not a short-term goal. These patients are complex because there are numerous medical conditions that, taken together, prevent the patient from receiving their treatment at a less intense setting.

Offer prolonged lengths of stay. General hospitals are not set up to deliver long treatment plans. LTAC hospitals are staffed with physicians and clinicians with an expertise in preventing complications, managing and coordinating multiple disciplines of care and making thorough discharge plans.

Kindred’s JCAHO-accredited hospitals care for the highest acuity patients in the LTAC industry. As demonstrated by APACHE Medical Systems scores, the typical Kindred patient has the same acuity level as do many ICU patients across the country. Many of our patients are referred from short-term hospitals with a need to transfer medically complex patients from the ICU/CCU to a unit capable of meeting their medical needs.

In 2005, our patients’ average APACHE III score was 43.12, only slightly below the national mean of 46 for ICU patients.

• Our patients’ ALOS was 31 days, consistent with the industry average.
• Our LTAC Hospital Case Mix Index is currently 1.22, compared to the industry average of 1.0, showing that Kindred has the most resource-intensive patients in the LTAC industry. Our STAC Hospital Case Mix Index is currently 2.22, compared to the industry average of 1.0, showing that our patients are over twice as resource intensive as STAC hospital patients.

Our internal data is based on the following 2005 information:

• 1.1 million patient days
• 37,100 admissions
• 7,600 vent admissions
• 648,200 line days
• 330,100 vent days

Kindred has had continued success in preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia, with an infection rate well below the national ICU benchmark of 6.4/1000 ventilator days.*

Rates per thousand

2002: 2.18
2003: 2.02
2004: 1.91
2005: 1.83