Select specialty hospitals

Shagce1 · Mar 5, 2016

Anyone?

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 13, 2016

I work in one.

It really depends on which kind of patients this place take. The range is from something mostly like acute rehab to pretty much ICU level. We take "stable" ICU level patients all the time, recently started to admit fresh ETTs with continuous sedation. Because of acuity, load is about 3-5 patients/day per nurse days, 6 at night. All these can be vents on total care. We run our own codes, have access to lab and diagnostic facilities of the "host" hospital 24/7, phlebotomy, X-ray, etc. We have full-time WOC-RN, but on weekends and at any time staff is expected to do full range of wound care if necessary, including wound vacs change, and that's why we constantly have in-services regarding this. Select has excellent online education program.

The work in LTACH is extremely demanding, physically and mentally, because for most of the patients it is the end of the line. Whatever said, it IS acute care, and more acute than many med/surg units. You may not have 6 admissions and 5 discharges per shift (although 1 - 2 is pretty common) but you may have 4 vented patients, two of them on drips, and one family quarreling about comfort care, and not enough aides to run the floor (as everywhere).

Shagce1 · Mar 14, 2016

Thank you for your response.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2016

KatieMI summed it up quite well. The Select hospital I worked for got a lot of pts directly from high level ICUs -- we got a lot of burn, complex wound care, TBI, stroke, and renal pts. My location was even able to take heart pts with LVADs (I don't know that all Select hospitals do.) It's really hard work, families can be wound VERY tight from their loved one being so sick for so long. I feel like most of my LTAC pts are sicker than most of my current hospital's stepdown pts...and much sicker than med surg pts.

On the good side, it's very rewarding to see pts progress over the course of their stay. You will learn a ton. Pay was good too.

Shagce1 · Mar 22, 2016

Thank you. Does anyone know anything about Lifecare hospitals to compare or contrast to select specialty?

Mikey31079 · Mar 29, 2016

I work for Select as a UC/MT and float between all 4 sites in the area. If you do end up working for Select, you will learn a lot, but I can tell you there are days that staffing will truly suck and I've seen RN's get up to 7 patients at one site. Also, the main Select hospital where I am take LVADs, the rest of them do not. I've found the ones I truly enjoy working in are the ones that are within a hospital (we have 2).

And just a word of advice: the monitor techs do not appreciate it when you ignore their calls (not saying you would do that, but there are some that do...just a little mini-vent) :-)

seaofclouds21, BSN, RN · Apr 14, 2016

I worked at Select for almost 4 years. I left due to moving out of the area. We had LVADs on occassion. As for the comparison between Select and Lifecare, it really depends on where you are. Lifecare and Select are direct competitors. They take the same type of patients. I'm not sure how much they differ in staffing, but I know the Lifecare where I use to live was struggling to keep their census up for a while.