EAGLE LAKE — The Eagle Lake Noon Lions Club welcomed three guests from the Rice Medical Center Skilled Nursing Swing Bed Program on Oct. 18.
Case Manager Alethea Chapman was the spokesperson, explaining the benefits of having this excellent hospital-based program in the community. Rice Medical Center is a rural critical access hospital located in Eagle Lake, designated as a Level IV Trauma Center. The Swing Bed Program provides short-term rehabilitation to patients who have been discharged from the hospital, but need more time to recover from an illness, surgical procedure or injury.
The label ‘Swing Bed’ does not describe a bed that swings, but rather it is an insurance term that ‘swings’ a patient’s care out of the acute care level into the rehabilitation level of the patient’s Insurance plan. At Rice Medical Center a Swing Bed patient is able to receive in-house therapy, including physical, occupational, speech, respiratory, as well as wound care, Imaging and Lab services and consultations with out-patient clinic specialty physicians without leaving the hospital. On top of that is the excellence of the Rice Medical nursing and physician staff professionals who are highly trained to care for the patient’s needs.
