A Safe Place to Land
‘A win-win for everyone’: Learn about the impact of West Virginia’s first medical respite care center
Getting discharged from the hospital isn’t always the last step in a person’s recovery. Even when a patient is sent home, there may still be recuperation and care required to ensure that they make the greatest recovery possible. But what happens when a patient is well enough to leave the hospital, but there’s no home to return to?
WVU Medicine United Hospital Health Center is addressing this issue by partnering with the United Way of Harrison and Doddridge Counties to establish the first medical respite care center in the state of West Virginia. Medical respite care, a relatively new concept in the U.S., is designed to assist people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity who are too ill to recuperate in a shelter or on the street, but not ill enough to stay in a hospital.
People experiencing homelessness or unstable housing experience poorer health outcomes than those with access to a safe, stable place to live. A medical respite care facility would provide better continuity of care, along with access to integrated medical care and support services.
“It will help keep down the emergency room utilization, reduce hospital admissions and more importantly re-admissions, assure that care plans are adhered to, and improve the quality of life for people who are part of the medical respite care program said David F. Hess, M.D., president and CEO of WVU Medicine United Hospital Center. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”
Resilience Collaborative, a direct service program of the United Way, is first planning to begin operations in a motel setting, before transitioning to a residential structure when possible.