When you are brought to the hospital for a serious medical incident such as a heart attack or brain injury, the treatment you receive there is called “acute” care, or care that is provided to address a severe or emergent medical issue. Traditional hospitals are designed to diagnose and stabilize individuals with acute medical problems. They typically do not expect their patients to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time. In some cases though, patients require more time to recover in a hospital setting before they can safely return home. Most traditional hospitals are not designed to facilitate care for an extended period, so they will refer these patients to another care provider. When patients require continued hospitalization for the management of complex medical issues, they may be referred to a critical care hospital, sometimes called a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH), like Advanced Care Hospital of Southern New Mexico.
Our hospital is built to meet the needs of patients who require longer recovery periods in a hospital setting. Critical care hospitals specialize in treating serious respiratory, cardiac, multi-system, neurological, infectious disease, and wound healing issues, among other conditions. Our goal is to help patients advance their recovery as much as possible during their hospital stay.