Swing Bed Services at LCMH

  • What happens in the in between time when you are not strong enough to leave the hospital but you are not sick enough to stay in the hospital? That is where the Swing Bed Service at Lawrence County Memorial Hospital comes in!
  • The Swing Bed Service provides inpatient nursing care and therapy for patients who need more time to recover from an illness or injury.
  • What exactly is a ‘Swing Bed’? It is the Medicare term for a type of patient who receives skilled nursing care and rehabilitation care while staying in the hospital.
  • The patient “swings” between different levels of care while remaining in the same physical hospital bed.
  • It has also been called skilled nursing care or short-term rehab.
  • Critical Access Hospitals, rural/community hospitals with 25 beds or less, are the only facilities authorized by Medicare to offer this service.
  • To qualify for this service it includes patients who have been in the hospital for at least 3 days but require additional nursing care and/or rehabilitation services on a daily basis qualify for this program.
  • That includes patients who need:
    • daily physical, occupational and/or speech therapy
    • care after orthopedic surgery, such as joint replacement or fractures
    • to continue or complete IV therapy, respiratory interventions
    • specialized treatment for complex wounds or wounds that won’t heal
    • more education (after hospital discharge) related to disease management
  • Once goals are met or maximum recovery achieved, a member of our team will make plans for discharge. To learn more about this service at Lawrence County Memorial Hospital, click here!