The Effectiveness of Swing Bed, Term Paper Example

Abstract

Health care providers are always faced with challenges that are specific to the nature of their patients. As a result, the ability to provide health care makes a difference between the life and death of a patient. However, costs and revenues have to be matched in order to assure the continuity of the facility. Swing beds are an effort by the health care providers in their duty to avail health care in all locations.

Introduction

Health care facilities have always been insufficient to cater for the needs of the sick. As a result, most hospitals and health care providers have gone to the limit to invent ways to utilize the available resources to achieve the best results for the sick. The unpredictability of sickness makes it impossible for hospitals to accurately predict resource requirements especially regarding bed space. Any efforts to estimate the requirements are subject to outbreaks or natural disasters (Ricketts, 1999). The length it takes for a patient to recover is also unpredictable. Swing bed are used to hold patients who have received life saving care and are convalescent for observation until discharge or a nursing home is able to absorb the patient.  Since it is not safe to discharge those casualties and send them home, they are held in the swing beds.

In the absence of ample hospital resources in the rural areas, swing beds are used to alleviate the traffic of patients to the nursing homes. As posited by Wiener & Brookings Institution (1987), through use of swing beds, hospitals re able to avoid expensive placement delays. In rural hospitals, space is restrained by the availability of capital resources. Swing beds come in handy since bed space is availed to the most serious while the recovering patients are channeled to the swing beds to enable them rest. The nature of swing bed enables the patients

The huge costs involved in the care of in patients have necessitated strict guidelines by hospitals leading to most patients receiving outpatient care. Such casualties are deemed sub acute and thus are not in urgent need for a doctor. Their recovery process can be overseen by a nurse, in which case the patient is transferred to a swing bed facility. The presence of skilled nurses is assured in order to protect the casualties from unattended complications that may arise at any time. As outlined by Griffin (1995), a patient has to undergo acute care treatment for at least three consecutive days in order to qualify for skilled nursing facility services. Swing beds are only restricted to a certain threshold, 3000 swing bed days per annum, after which the costs exceed benefits (Griffin, 1995). The quality of care achieved through us of swing bed exceeds that availed at stand-alone skilled nursing facilities despite being under-equipped.

The mushrooming cost of health care in the contemporary world has pushed hospitals to find a compromise on how to avail heath care services to the ballooning number of invalids (Griffin, 1995). With the limited resources, swing beds provided an avenue for doctor to categorize patients who are in acute and sub acute conditions. The acute patients receive care in the regular hospital facilities while sub acute patients who have received responsive treatment are transferred to the swing beds, by so doing doctors are able to reserve the facilities for the most deserving patients as suggested by Ginzberg (1991).

In the rural areas, swing beds are sometimes the only available from of assistances for patients owing to the absence of skilled nursing facilities. As a result, such hospitals are allowed to institute this facility in order to bridge the gap in availability of recovery facility. The lack of skilled nursing facilities occurs due to the erratic occupancy due to democratic characteristics (Griffin, 1995). Swing beds can be used interchangeably and are applicable to absorb the cyclic problems observed in rural health care facilities. The cost implications of a swing bed to the patient are lower when the patient is contained in a swing bed as outlined by Mufti (2000).

Similarly, they eliminate the patient transfer costs to the nursing facilities located away from the hospital (Wiener & Brookings Institution, 1987). Swing beds have also improved service delivery to the aged. As a result, the elderly in the rural can receive care from the nursing staff in a facility without increase in cost of health care (Ginzberg, 1991). This had a major impact in neutralizing the availability of health care across races and socioeconomic differences.

Swing beds have however been observed to be unpopular due to increased responsibility among the staff. The care of sub-acute patients presents its own challenges in addition to the regular patients. Patients may require services including recreational therapy, the competency for which most of staff members may not possess (US Congress, 1990). Regulations laid out for skilled during facilities are not inculcated into the skills catalogue of regular nurses. Thus, the staff is bound to face challenges in the absence of additional training.

Conclusion

The efforts by hospitals to avail sufficient health care services under the constraints of finances are commendable. Swing beds have enabled hospitals to accommodate influx of patients and still manage to cater for acute cases. As a result, the rural areas are no longer dens of death for patients in addition o being more affordable.

References

Ginzberg, E. (1991). Health Services Research: Key to Health Policy US: Harvard University Press

Griffin, K., M (1995). Handbook of Sub acute Health Care Maryland: Jones & Bartlett Publishers

Mufti, M., H. (2000). Healthcare Development Strategies in the Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia. New York: Springer,

Ricketts, T., C. (1999). Rural health in the United States. US: Oxford University Press

Shaughnessy, P., W & Schlenker, R., E (October 1986). Hospital swing-bed care in the United States. Health Services Research. Vol. 21(4):477-498. Retrieved on February 13 2010 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1068967/

United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment. (1990). Health Care in Rural America, Volumes 34-35 Health Care in Rural America. National Academies, 1990

Wiener, J., M & Brookings Institution. (1987). Swing Beds: Assessing Flexible Health Care in Rural Communities. Brookings Institution