Educating Patients for Optimal Health When They Go Home

Helping people recover from accidents, diseases, or surgeries is Whitehall Boca’s primary mission as a skilled nursing facility. But fixing people is only half of the equation to make sure they don’t wind up back in a hospital or nursing facility.

That other equation is education, critical to ensuring that before patients ever leave Whitehall, they’re armed with the specific knowledge they need to maintain their recovery — and even continue to improve.

Education is a continuing process, beginning with the nurses, who bring their own special knowledge and skills to every patient. But that’s just the beginning.

The Physical and Occupational Therapy Departments teach a wide variety of interactive approaches to exercise, which includes car transfers, along with bathroom, bedroom and kitchen safety. In short, they teach patients to live life to the fullest when they get home by knowing how to adapt and live better with an illness, injury, or a disability. Helpful to many patients is our transitions program, which provides patients soon to be discharged an opportunity to try out their newly-learned skills in an apartment-like setting right within Whitehall.

Whitehall also has wound care nurses who are specially trained in the treatment and prevention of wounds. They collaborate with team members on appropriate specialty beds and equipment. Through teaching and the use of repetition, residents and family members learn how wounds can improve.

For patients with breathing or other cardiopulmonary disorders, our Respiratory Therapy Department is hands-on in evaluation, treatment, and care programs. They consult with a healthcare team to develop and modify each resident’s plan of care. That includes the eventual teaching even of family members to care for their loved ones who might require life support in a home setting.

Cardiac rehabilitation is one of Whitehall’s newest programs. Our medical director, physician, nurse, occupational therapist, physical therapist, recreational therapist, respiratory therapist, dietician, and social worker have routine meetings with cardiac residents covering a wide variety of topics and useful information. (See our YouTube video on Whitehall's cardiac program for a detailed look at how this all works.)

Our educational approach is comprehensive, to be sure, but we recognize that residents ready for discharge may still need a bridge back into the community. That’s where our Social Services Department comes into play. For instance, our social service professionals make sure both residents and their caregivers learn about home health agencies — often the link in continuing a patient’s care once they leave Whitehall.

Getting people to their optimal recovery while they’re in Whitehall? Critical! Helping them stay the steady course when they leave Whitehall? Essential. We make sure we do both.

 

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Whitehall Boca Raton, 7300 Del Prado South, Boca Raton, FL 33433
Phone: (561) 392-3000; Fax: (561) 392-6031