Long-term acute care is rehabilitation for patients who are too sick to be in a nursing home but not sick enough to be in a traditional hospital.

Long-term acute care is administered in specialized hospitals. The stay of those entering long-term acute hospitals can be anywhere from 20 to 30 days. After recovery, patients usually return to their places of residence.

What's the difference?
When you suffer a severe injury, you are taken to a hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, doctors and nurses do whatever it takes to make sure they get you stable. For those who are too frail to enter a rehabilitation facility or return to where they live, these patients enter a long-term acute care facility that oversees the needs of those with acute and chronic conditions.

Facing a long haul
Who Needs It?
People who need long-term acute care are those who have suffered strokes, cardiac and breathing failure, infections that affect the body's tissues and organs, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the head, to name a few.

Chronic illnesses
Hospice Care?
Although it seems like a contradiction, long-term acute care is not for the terminally ill, such as those suffering cancer, and no hospice care is offered. Those who need long-term acute care are expected to recover enough to return to traditional long-term-care facilities, such as nursing homes.

Staffing
Although long-term acute care administers treatment, the facilities do not have a full staff like traditional hospitals that offer emergency room care. If there is an emergency, there are doctors and nurses who are on standby.

Growth
According to the Gerson Lehrman Group, long-term acute care hospitals started in the 1980s, and the number has grown to nearly 400 facilities nationwide.