LTC vs. LTACH

 Today we will be talking about some differences between Long Term Care (LTC) and Long Term Acute Care Hospitals. It's common in healthcare industry and many fall prevention solution companies to get confused by these terms and what each of them entail. However, it's critical to know these terms to be able to provide services and solutions tailored to each of them.

According to Special Hospital of New Jersey, Long Term Care can be categorized as "custodial care". It means that after an acute illness, the patient may recover but still need assistance to go through the day. They may need assistance with various things, it can range from eating, using the bathroom, cleaning, to speech and functional therapy. 

On the other hand, Long Term Acute Care Hospitals admit patients that have serious medical conditions that require prolonged medical services. So this entails more than assisting patients with their daily needs, but also their critical medical needs to help them with recovery.

The key difference between the two is that Long Term Acute Care Hospital stays usually require prolonged stays that must be more than 25 days or longer. Whereas, Long Term Care stays are typically 24 hours, which is much more shorter than staying at a LTACH. Another difference is that LTACHs offer more than daily assistance to patients, they admit patients with critical medical conditions and provide medical care to help patients to reach recovery. LTCs provide assistance to patients that almost recovered from an acute illness but in need of help with daily activities such as eating, using the bathroom, or various therapies.