Jamaica Hospital is now home to the Metropolitan area’s first Transitional Care Unit (TCU) thanks to a New York State Department of Health demonstration project that brought specialized nursing and rehabilitation services to five health systems statewide.
The Medisys Health Network, comprised of Jamaica, Brookdale and Flushing Hospitals, was selected out of several hundred hospitals that sought the benefits of a TCU – a multi-disciplinary unit for hospitalized patients who require additional recovery time before returning home.
Dr. Angelo Canedo, Vice President of Rehabilitation Services at Jamaica Hospital, said in a statement that Jamaica’s TCU “is an interim step for patients with declining self-care functions.” He added that the unit will help restore patients to their pre-hospitalization lifestyles, facilitate appropriate discharge plans and reduce patients’ lengths of stay.
Jamaica’s TCU, which is a seven-bed unit – the forthcoming Flushing and Brookdale units are six- and seven-bed respectively – is staffed by certified doctors and health care professionals and provides services including pharmaceutical, nutritional, physical therapy, skin and wound care and social work.
The unit will place a premium on educating patients, who must require medical, skilled nursing and/or rehabilitation services on a daily basis in order to be admitted. As a result of its TCU, Jamaica Hospital expects to reduce emergency room visits, promote independence among former patients and reduce the number of re-hospitalizations.
