18 Sep How Physical Therapy at Home Helps Seniors Avoid Hospital Readmissions?
Seniors need time to recover after leaving the hospital as they can continue to experience weakness, balance problems, difficulties while walking and reduced independence. This can put them at risk of falls and further complications.
When patients leave the hospital after recovering from an illness or surgery, physical therapy at home can help senior citizens continue regaining strength and mobility in their own familiar environment.
Griham Healthcare at home physical therapy service for seniors provides qualified physical therapists to monitor patients and guide them professionally at home helping them safely regain strength and mobility.
In this blog, we’ll look at how physical therapy at home can make recovery after leaving the hospital safer and easier for seniors and their families.
Understanding the Hospital Readmission Problem in Seniors
Seniors who have recently been discharged from a hospital can be very vulnerable in the first few weeks post discharge. Surgery, illness, prolonged bed rest or injury can cause their muscles to weaken to the point where they might not be able to stand, walk, go up stairs or get into and out of bed.
This can lead to hospital readmission as the risk of falls, reduced mobility, muscle deconditioning or difficulties managing their new care regime rises. The first 30 days post discharge is critical to enable patients to return to full independence and optimal health.
An important step in post discharge care includes mobility, strength, balance and independence to aid recovery from the effects of illness or surgery.
Why Physical Therapy Matters in Post-Hospital Recovery?
In hospitals, there is a potential for patients to not be as physically active as they would be at home. Even a short stay in hospital can lead to patients being in bed for long periods of time and developing muscle weakness or deconditioning, which is particularly true for older adults.
As seniors rebuild physical strength after their hospital stay, physical therapy helps them with exercises and activities to help regain independence. Physiotherapy at home in Patna offers many programs focusing on improving muscle strength, joint mobility, balance, walking, transfers and overall endurance.
This helps seniors stay engaged in activity rather than spend all day in bed and put health to risk.
How Home-Based Physical Therapy Reduces Readmission Risk?
From improving balance to building strength, home-based physical therapy can support seniors in several ways during recovery. Let’s take a closer look.
1. Fall Prevention and Balance Training
Recovering from illness, surgery or a bone fracture puts many older adults at risk of falling. Inadequate muscle strength, poor balance, inability to walk properly and misuse of walking aids are all a risk factor.
Physical therapy exercises include balance, gait, strengthening as well as practice of safe transfers. Since the sessions of physical therapy are held at the home of the senior, the physiotherapist can also observe how the senior performs daily activities in their home and identify potential problems for safer mobility.
2. Faster, Monitored Recovery in a Familiar Environment
Some older people may find it too tiring to travel to a clinic within a short period of time after discharge from hospital. With home therapy, they can continue their rehabilitation without excessive traveling.
In addition, seniors can practice the same functional movements they perform on a daily basis in their own home environment. Griham Healthcare physiotherapists closely monitor progress of patients during sessions, adapting the exercises as the individual’s capacities change.
3. Early Recognition of Changes During Recovery
Physical therapists are not doctors or nurses and cannot diagnose or treat medical problems. However, during regular visits to seniors’ homes, a trained therapist can notice changes in the senior’s condition which require a medical evaluation.
For example, when a senior’s mobility decreases, develops swelling, increases in pain, is short of breath when active, or displays other signs of concern the physical therapist can contact a doctor or nurse and advise the senior and their family as to the recommended course of action.
4. Improved Mobility and Independence
Inability to move safely can lead to increased need for family and caregivers to complete tasks for seniors. In addition, it will lead to the senior living a sedentary lifestyle which can further decrease their strength.
Home physical therapy for faster recovery focuses on training seniors to safely perform functional activities, such as getting up from a chair, walking, getting into and out of bed, and safely navigating their homes.
With this change in lifestyle seniors can continue to function independently and family members can continue to support their loved one’s recovery rather than performing all physical tasks for them.
5. Personalized, Condition-Specific Recovery Plans
Recovery needs post hospitalisation can vary from person to person. Someone who has had a knee replacement will need different physical therapy than someone who has had a stroke, a fracture, a cardiac event or someone recovering from a long illness.
Griham Healthcare at home physical therapy is tailored to the senior’s specific condition, current level of function, strength, medical restrictions, and recovery goals for that individual. Exercises progress as the senior gains strength for better results.
6. Better Adherence to the Overall Care Plan
Recovery involves more than scheduled therapy sessions. Senior patients need to follow exercise recommendations at home, use their mobility devices correctly, attend medical appointments and follow all instructions given by their healthcare team.
The physical therapist at home can review the exercises and their proper use with the patient during therapy sessions. The family can also be taught how to assist the patient between sessions to aid in their recovery.
7. Fewer Unnecessary Trips Outside the Home
Many older people have limited mobility and traveling to and from a clinic can be a difficult task, especially if they have been discharged from the hospital recently.
Home healthcare services in Patna makes it easier for seniors to follow a rehabilitation program while limiting clinic visits.
What happens after discharge matters just as much as what happened during the hospital stay. With the right support seniors can gradually work towards better strength and mobility which also reduces the risk of hospital readmission.
How Griham Healthcare Can Help?
Home Healthcare is ideal for Seniors who have had a hospital stay and require post hospital care but find traveling to hospital on a regular basis too difficult. Griham Healthcare is dedicated to supporting such seniors with ongoing care and rehabilitation in their own homes.
Here’s how Griham Healthcare at home physiotherapy service can benefit seniors:
- With proper physical therapy, seniors can improve strength, balance and mobility.
- Home visits allow the therapists to see how the senior manages their daily activities.
- Physiotherapists can work with seniors on everyday activities they need to perform at home.
- Griham Healthcare works with families and other healthcare professionals to ensure that the elderly person has the best possible care and support during their recovery.
- We include a full mobility assessment with advice on and implementation of fall prevention strategies as well as a variety of rehabilitation exercises to aid recovery.
For families with elderly loved ones who are in need of home based rehabilitation, receiving professional care in the comfort of their own home after a hospital stay is a practical way to continue their care.
Conclusion
Strength, mobility, balance and independence are key factors to enable effective recovery after hospitalization. Home physical therapy for seniors is a beneficial way to work on these issues in the comfort and safety of their own home.
Physical rehabilitation can help to prevent falls and support continued recovery while addressing all the other factors that lead to readmission to hospital.
Griham Healthcare offers a home based physical therapy program for seniors and works with families to provide a structured program of rehabilitation for their elderly loved ones at home.
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