Nearing completion: And Ivy Road LTACH changes name
The hospital nears completion on U.S. 250 West.PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER
As UVA’s newest hospital building readies for opening this spring, the facility rising alongside UVA's Northridge Medical Office Building on Ivy Road has been given a new name. It has been called the Long Term Acute Care Hospital, or LTACH; but with a February 25 vote from the Board of Visitors, the rising 50-bed facility will become "the University of Virginia Transitional Care Hospital." The name, according to the Board resolution, was based on market research with a goal of eliminating any confusion with the downtown parts of the Medical Center. In a nod to modern stormwater run-off concerns, the development makes use of existing parking lots and includes a modern bio-retention basin down the hillside from the hospital.
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7 comments
With so many people having no insurance; the ability to pay for all the super expensive high tech care the industrial healthcare complex is rolling out will mean sooner, rather than later, health care will need to be rationed.
...need to be rationed" much more rationally than it is now.
This is exactly the kind of facility that feeds the irrational and unfair expectations of most people. Medicare, and private "insurance" recipients alike, all expecting endless medical considerations for their chronic, often progressive conditions,--often for middle-aged and old patients who've already been burdening the system for decades,--in perfect combination with a monstrous level of medical fraud from UVa, is just what the region needs.
Jeez! I guess it's better to just unplug the old geezers from their vents before wasting time trying to rehab/ween them off and just wheel 'em on down to the incinerator? Maybe we should set an age limit like Logan's Run?
R Arthur is simply full of crap. LTAC hospitals serve a vital acute care/rehabilitative function at a much lower cost than treating those same patients in an ICU.
I don't why I ever read these comments.
"Lynchburg, of all places,"
"R.Arthur is simply full of crap."
Of course, this level of care will be grossly misused and we can't afford it. It'll be populated with medical payment coverage, not "health insurance," and that will direct this "rehab." Most would be better in their homes, with family, nursing , or hospice care. Many will be predictably right back in the emergency departments and short-term parking facilities, proving the inappropriate use of Medicare funding, and many, I'd bet, are fraudulently admitted while their UVa-Somebody's are away in Europe.
Can you imagine trying to defend this kind of care for 85 year-old boomers?
But we're Americans. We don't want to overhaul health care.
Is this the next bubble to burst ? High Tech facilities with all the advanced technology rolling off the assembly line, courtesy of the ever profitable medical device and pharmaceutical industry. With millions of Americans without any health care at all--who will pay for all this ?
This is a much needed facility in this part of the state. Until it opens, there are only two acute-care rehab facilities that handle ventilator patients in the entire STATE. One is in Lynchburg (of all places) and the other is in Richmond. This facility will fill a gaping hole in the UVA Health System.
My guess is that you do not understand the function of LTAC hospitals. As I said above, they are for patients who are (hopefully) on their way to recovery yet still require an acute level of care and rehab (more than a skilled nursing unit can provide). It is FAR more cost effective to treat this type of patient in one of these facilities than to incur the expense (and space) of keeping them in an intensive care unit of, say, UVA or Roanoke Memorial.
"Most would be better in their homes, with family, nursing , or hospice care."
Really? Most folks don't have ventilators just lying around the house. Neither do nursing homes. LTAC's have plenty of them though.
Have you ever tried to ween someone off of a ventilator? I haven't either, but it happens all the time - in LTAC facilities.
"...many, I’d bet, are fraudulently admitted while their UVa-Somebody’s are away in Europe."
?????
"Can you imagine trying to defend this kind of care for 85 year-old boomers?"
Yes. And for every other age group that will be served by this facility.
"But we’re Americans. We don’t want to overhaul health care."
I feel ya on overhauling healthcare, but you're picking the wrong fight here.