One of the best parts about having the option to refer patients to Medical shelters is the fact that as a medical professional, you can play your part in changing the world around you. Instead of watching patients that came into the hospital in a critical condition get back on the street while being sick or wounded, you can now opt for a solution that might help them benefit from the Recuperative Care that they need to get better.
The process is not complicated at all and, in the event of not knowing what to do about a specific patient, there will be a person appointed to help you. You can easily reach out to the shelter and talk about the homeless individual that you would like to refer and get accepted into the program. If they say that the patient does not meet the requirements for the program, there is nothing else that can be done. But, this does not mean that you should refer only the patients that are more likely to be welcome into this transition hospital.
Are There Any Conditions Associated with Recuperative Care?
The truth about the conditions that the patient needs to meet for Recuperative Care are not ridiculous in any way. A patient that is lucid, is not in a critical condition, can do daily activities without the help of another person, is not aggressive towards others or themselves and does not give into a specific addition while staying at the shelter – is most likely going to be accepted.
These are the main conditions that you should know about before you decide whether you are going to try and help a homeless person take a different route this time. The best approach would be to go through the referral process for all of your patients so that you know that you have done everything in your power to help them. It would be recommended that you don’t tell them until they are accepted. Otherwise, if the application is rejected, they will deal with another disappointment that will have a serious impact on their life.
What you should do, to ensure that you don’t waste your time with the referral process, would be to speak on the phone with the person responsible for these applications. Tell them all about the patient and wait for them to give you an answer. If it’s a positive one, you can go ahead and fill out the actual referral application and send it over. The system is not designed to help everyone and this is where Medical shelters come in. They can make all the difference in the world for patients that want to have a better life.
Steps to Follow for Referring Patients to Medical Shelters
It is important to understand that when it comes to Medical shelters , as a doctor you can only do so much. Going through the referral process with each patient is more than enough. You can’t be responsible for their choices and actions. If they get there and instead of trying to find ways to get better, they become aggressive or try to find drugs or break the rules in any other way – that is not something that you can control.
Here’s exactly what you need to do to refer patients to this kind of shelter:
• Get to know a bit about your patients. Knowing about their living conditions will help you identify whether they could use your help or not.
• If you know that they live on the streets and have been into the hospital before, it might be best to intervene. Talk to them about their life and ask them a few questions that can help you get valuable insight regarding their current situation.
• Talk on the phone or via email with the person responsible for the applications sent to the shelter.
• Based on their answer regarding a patient, you can go ahead and fill out the actual referral application.
• Tell the patient about this option and how their life is going to change.
Before these centers where homeless individuals could benefit from Recuperative Care, patients did not have other option than just to get back on the street and then get re-admitted into the hospital when their condition got worse again. The outcome of such a situation is well-known. But now that you can refer a patient to a shelter, for the ones that truly want to turn their life around, this is now a possibility. Look for a medical center, download the list of conditions that a patient needs to meet and help as many people as possible!
