Your Independence, With That Extra Support When You Need It.
Assisted living communities can range in size from a small residential house for one resident up to very large communities providing services to hundreds of residents. Assisted living communities bridge the gap between living independently and residing in skilled nursing communities where continual care is often required.
These communities vary greatly from the size and features of their accommodations to the services they offer. There is usually no special medical monitoring equipment that one would find in a skilled nursing community, and their nursing staff may not be available at all hours. However, trained staff are usually on-site around the clock to provide other needed services. Household chores are performed: sheets are changed, laundry is done, and food is cooked and served. The level of care varies by community; medication management, bathing assistance, dressing, escorts to meals and activities, toileting, transferring, and insulin injections may be included. Some homes even have a beauty parlor on site. Grocery service is often available too.
Assisted Living Communities have an exceptional opportunity to serve their residents even better by including Five Star Physicians to their team. A standard Five Star Physicians model for an assisted living community includes both a physician and nurse practitioner making rotating visits see several times per week. This provides consistent and regular care and reduces not only the aggravation of a resident going out to the physician, but ensures the resident will not dismiss that important physician visit and the care (and medication) they prescribe to maintain and improve their health.
Who Chooses to Live in Assisted Living Communities?
An assisted living resident is defined as a resident who needs assistance with at least one of the activities of daily living (ADL). Additionally, we are experiencing a transformation in long-term care like not time previously. Assisted living communities are accepting higher and higher levels of care and nursing homes are becoming a place for those who are undergoing rehabilitation after a hospital stay or who need extensive clinical care assistance. Many assisted living communities now accept individuals who need assistance with all activities of daily living.
As more and more and more residents with medical conditions continue to call these communities home, the demand for improved clinical care increases too. Five Star Physicians has the experience your community needs and your residents require.
Special Needs
Residents who have periods of temporary incapacity due to illness, injury, or recuperation from surgery often are allowed to remain in their residence or to return from a rehabilitation center, skilled nursing community or hospital if appropriate services can be provided by the assisted living community. On many assisted living communities in the Mid-Atlantic states, Five Star Physicians is the on-site clinical care provider for these situations.
Memory Care
Many communities also serve the needs of people with dementia including Alzheimer’s disease and others with mental disabilities.
Many ALFs will work to accommodate a person who suffers from severe forms of Alzheimer’s by having separate private residencies. These units are part of the community but are secured so residents with Alzheimer’s cannot leave and possibly do harm to themselves. The units usually house fewer people and more attention from the caregivers is provided.
Today more than at any time before, Assisted Living Communities need the on-site critical care that Five Star Physicians delivers. More clinical care regulations are generated annually, governing how an Assisted Living Community has to improve access to clinical care. Additionally, clinical data suggests that delivering consistent care in the community serves to manage and improve health at an affordable cost, reducing both unnecessary visits to the Emergency Room as well as costly treatments.
For progressive Assisted Living Communities, Five Star Physicians offers part time and full time physicians, delivering necessary clinical care, on site. We operate in an assisted living community much like we do in a skilled nursing community. Critical to our success is our commitment to our patient and their family.
