Our site intends to provide seniors and their loved ones with essential information about the many complicated facets of nursing care, so they can end up with a nursing home that fits their personal financial, medical and emotional needs.
Eau Claire nursing homes admit patients for a wide array of medical conditions. Area nursing homes, also called skilled nursing facilities, provide residence to patients with chronic, serious, terminal, permanent, acute and sub-acute health issues. Nursing professionals are available to deliver periodic to around-the-clock health monitoring and proper services and supplies to assist patients who are in rehabilitation or under long-term health management. Nurses, physicians, social workers, non-medical caregivers, specialists, therapists and nutritionists are part of multidisciplinary team of personnel that collaborate to give the most advanced forms of treatment patients can find outside a hospital.
The two main forms of nursing care are long-term and short-term care. Some Eau Claire skilled nursing facilities also offer specialized care services for health problems like memory loss.
Short-term care focuses on supporting patients recovering from acute medical events like surgeries, falls, strokes, heart attacks and aneurisms. A large majority of short-term patients were directed to nursing care after a hospital stay. Patients are guided along a professionally designed path of recovery to help patients regain strength, rebuild lost functions and minimize the damaging effects of their medical trauma. Patients often use occupational, respiratory, speech or physical therapy to reach a level of health appropriate for a less inclusive level of care. Discharge planners help patients find proper area care, often in home or assisted living care, for patients to complete their recuperation process.
Hospital stays are the precursors to many short-term nursing stays. Finding quality hospital care can be vital to a patient’s eventual full recovery. Getting proper medical treatment in the first days after a medical event can affect how a patient responds to treatment down the road. Eau Claire’s best health care services, based on patients’ past hospital experiences, are offered by Mayo Clinic Health System Eau Claire Hospital and Sacred Heart Hospital.
Long-term care admits patients who need medium-term to prolonged periods of residency for illnesses and diagnoses like Alzheimer’s, dementia, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, hypothyroidism and general decline due to old age. Many newly admitted patients have disease that in a worsening condition. Nursing professionals respond to quickly changing symptoms and must collaborate to stabilize and reverse these patients’ conditions. Nurses and doctors give 24-hour health supervision and perform medical skills like injections, intravenous therapy, medication adjustment, wound care and blood work. Non-medical personnel assist patients with custodial care needs and other forms of everyday comfort. Social workers try to give patients reassurance and companionship by getting to know them on a personal level.
Nursing care costs in Eau Claire are close to the national average and well under the Wisconsin median level. Semi-private SNF accommodations have a monthly cost of $5,642, about $1,300 per month below the state median. Private SNF rooms cost $6,220 per month, over $1,500 per month less than the Wisconsin median.
Seniors and families with an inability to pay for the high cost of nursing care are covered by Medicaid. Medicaid is a joint state and federal government program. At certain levels of income or assets, Medicaid helps to pay for some of all of patients’ nursing care costs. Although there are certain fundamental conditions tied to Medicaid, eligibility, limitations and requirements vary by state. Your State Health Insurance Assistance Program offers assistance to those who needs more information about any aspect of Medicaid.