Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/89851
++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HOSPITAL SPOTLIGHT +++ +++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + + W Continuing the Care at Kindred ITH THE AGING of the population, the face of health care in America is changing. While post- acute care (PAC) providers used to play a relatively minor role in the continuum of care, their role is now increasingly more important. Recent statistics show that 35 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are discharged from acute care hospitals to PAC settings. As a result, coordina- tion and collaboration among acute care and post-acute care providers is paramount to improving quality of care and patient outcomes. Kindred Healthcare is the largest diversified provider of post-acute care ser- vices in the United States. In Northeast Ohio, Kindred has developed active integrated care partnerships to transition patients in need of extended recovery time from acute care settings across mul- tiple settings, including long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals, sub-acute (skilled nursing) units, rehabilitation centers, assisted living facilities and homecare. Mey Somasundaram, MD, and Michael Felver, MD, are medical direc- tors of Kindred Hospital Cleveland with locations near Cleveland Clinic (the Fairhill campus) and inside St. Vincent Charity Hospital (the Gateway campus). Michael Felver, MD, is medical director of Kindred Hospital Cleveland-Fairhill. He is shown here in a physical therapy room with Scott Gioia, PT. With a team of highly skilled physicians, clinicians, therapists and support staff, their task is to continue the care for medically complex patients. "We receive patients who have been discharged from a traditional hospital, but are too sick to go home or to a nursing home," says Dr. Somasundaram, an inter- nal medicine specialist who has directed Kindred Cleveland-Gateway for 11 years. "These patients have several concurrent chronic illnesses and have suffered an acute episode — such as a heart attack or stroke or kidney failure. Many are on ventilators; some, on dialysis. They are the sickest of the sick." PHOTOS © JOE SMITHBERGER, SMITHBERGER PHOTOGRAPHY, NORTH CANTON