Hospital Support and Rehab Support

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For anyone in the hospital or in a rehab setting, feeling at ease is difficult. Fighting loneliness and finding comfort can make a large difference in how a person comes through a surgery or other medical event with minimal complications. This is even more vital for people who are elderly as they’re more at risk of infections and more. Hiring a one-on-one companion is an important step to giving your loved one the best care possible.

Older patients are particularly vulnerable to certain increased risks.

• Delirium occurs in 1/3 of hospitalized patients over the age of 65 and in more than 70 percent of older patients in Intensive Care Units. Reasons for this include serious illness, exposure to new medications, disruption of normal routines and sleep disturbance. Often hospital staff will dismiss this a dementia behavior because they cannot notice the sometimes subtle changes that occur in peoples behavior.
• If an older adult cannot reposition himself, he is at risk for pressure ulcers (bed sores). Pressure ulcers affect 1 million adults annually and can quickly become serious if not attended to.
• Older patients may have multiple medical issues, requiring several specialists to be involved in his case. This can be confusing and difficult to coordinate for any patient, but especially for family members who cannot be present 24 hours a day.
• Older adults are at risk for falls, especially if they are sedated or disoriented. Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury and deaths.
• Older adults can be at risk for malnutrition. Studies cite that 58 percent of patients 65 and older have problems eating. The nutritional status of older patients has been reported to diminish in hospitals. This can slow recovery and increase the chances of delirium.

Hospital support from CareFirst can mitigate these risks by attending to your loved ones needs and advocating for them. Our highly trained caregivers take on tasks that medical staff may not have time to assist with quickly, such as helping the patient eat and get to the bathroom. Often, patients have to wait a long time to get assistance to the bathroom. It can be embarrassing and difficult to be told to wait and can lead to people falling in an attempt to get to the bathroom on their own.

Most important, hospital support caregivers can help people feel comfort at a time when nothing is comfortable. Studies have shown that patients want and need to maintain their connection to people while in the hospital. While phones can be helpful to stay connected, it might be hard to hear the person on the other end. Being able to have an in-person advocate that can have a friendly chat, read aloud, listen to music or simply maintain eye contact while listening improves the ability to communicate, as well as comfort levels.