MDNews - Greater Boston

COV ER FE AT UR E "K INDRE D HE ALTHCARE IS the only provider of post- acute care that actually pro v id e s f or p a t ient s across the continuum from tra nsi- tional care hospitals to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to home health," says Robert Klugman, MD, Vice President for Med ica l A f fa irs w it h K ind red Healthcare. "We excel at transitional care. We manage patients throughout their recovery trajectories, helping them become functional and return home as quickly as possible." With convenient locations in Boston, Natick, Peabody and Stoughton, Kindred's transitional care hospitals have formed partnerships with acute care hospitals throughout the Greater Boston area, attracting patients from as far away as Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island. These hospitals pro- vide long-term acute care with extended recovery time for patients. "We provide integrated care across healthcare settings and in the context of patients' lives," says Susan Downey, RN, MS, NHA, CEO of Kindred Hospital Boston. "We look at the patient and fam- ily as a complete system and attempt to understand their physical and emotional recovery course. Similarly, we aim for seamless transitions when patients come to us from acute settings, when they transfer into the community and at every point in between." Integrated Care Jeffrey Kuvin, MD, Medical Director of Cardiology at Kindred Healthcare, Associate Chief of Cardiology at Tufts Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, sees chronically, acutely ill patients every day. These patients are a blessing — a sign of contemporary medicine's miraculous ability to extend life for the sickest people — and also a responsibility. "The backdrop for transitional care hospitals is that many of our patients have never been more ill," he says. "They are living with multi-systemic disease and need acute level, long-term care." Such patients may have heart failure, KINDRED HEALTHCARE'S POST-ACUTE CARE PROGRAMS HELP PEOPLE WITH MULTIPLE, SERIOUS CONDITIONS IMPROVE FUNCTION AND INCREASE INDEPENDENCE, WHILE REASSURING PARTNER HOSPITALS THAT THEIR PATIENTS WILL BENEFIT FROM STRUCTURED TRANSITIONS INTO THE LEAST RESTRICTIVE SETTINGS. Kindred Healthcare: Seeing the Most Medically Complex Patients from Acute Care through Recovery By Jennifer Webster PHOTOS © RYAN RICHARDSON Margarida Martins-Pires, RN (left), and Cathy Tracey, RN, Care Transitions Manager, collaborate about an upcoming patient transition. 6 | Greater Boston MD NEWS ■ M D N E W S . CO M

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