Knoxville Nursing Homes

Our site intends to give seniors and families a well-informed base of knowledge about nursing care. We want all patients to be able to navigate the complex issues of skilled nursing care so they can ultimately make an educated decision on a facility best suited for their needs.

Knoxville nursing homes provide daily medical, social and rehabilitative treatments to patients with acute, chronic, temporary and terminal health conditions. Also called skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes deliver personalized health care through its interdisciplinary team of professionals. The team includes nurses and nursing aids, physicians, social workers, therapists and non-medical caregivers. Certain institutions have specialized care units in addition to their more general short-term or long-term accommodations. Knoxville skilled nursing facilities care for an extensive range of medical needs through dedicated and attentive service.

Long-term care delivers extended medical and social treatment to patients with severe mental and physical disabilities. Patients with Parkinson’s, dementia, cancer or general physical decline often seek long-term care because they are experiencing a marked decline in their condition. Each patient is admitted for a different goal. Some want to only manage their deteriorating health, while others look to improve enough to move to less comprehensive care. Doctors and nurses deal with the medical end of long-term care. They perform check-ups and complicated procedures like blood work, medicine dosage, tracheostomies and colostomies, intravenous therapy, injections and catheters. Non-medical caregivers help with the everyday comfort of long-term patients by giving them support with activities of daily living. SNFs also have a network of social and recreational workers to give companionship and independence to their patients.

Short-term care administers rehabilitative services to patients recently victims of acute medical events. Short-term care is most often used as outpatient care for post-hospital treatment. They are a temporary measure used to rebuild a patient to his or her former health. Whether through, physical, occupational, speech or other specialized form of therapy, short-term care works to bring patients to a level of health where they can pursue a lower level of care.

Prior to a short-term care visit, hospital care is an essential part of a patient’s recovery. Under the circumstances, patients should be aware of their area hospitals that give the best health care services. In Knoxville, the hospitals with the highest ratings based on patients’ hospital experiences are University of Tennessee Memorial Hospital and Parkwest Medical Center.

The high cost of nursing care is an issue that demands proper preparation and planning. Insurance plans have very limited coverage of nursing costs. Due to this, patients often must resort to private means of funding, such as long-term care insurance or their retirement savings, to pay for the cost. Those on Medicare need to understand that only 20 days of nursing care fully covered. The next 80 days of nursing care, in a benefit period, bear a co-payment fee, and coverage is not available after that.

Knoxville’s nursing care costs fall right around the national average but a few hundred dollars per month higher than the Tennessee median. Semi-private and private SNF rooms have a monthly cost of $5,550 and $6,159, respectively.