Crenshaw Community Hospital has launched a new swing bed program to provide sub-acute care in the community.

Director of Nursing Tara Odom said the new program is designed for patients who are discharging from a hospital but still need temporary additional care that cannot be provided at home or in a long-term care facility.

Odom said that typically a patient who utilizes the program would have spent a short time as an inpatient, but could still be too weak to return home.

“We offer rehabilitation such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, recreational therapy and speech therapy,” she said.

The program launched in November and so far five or six people have taken advantage of the new program.

Odom said you don’t have to be a patient of CCH to be eligible to participate in the swing bed program.

Among the criteria is that you must have stayed a minimum of three days in the hospital within a 30-day period prior to admission to the program.

CCH officials have converted the former OB services unit into the new facility complete with brand new equipment, but any of the rooms in the hospital can be turned into swing beds.

The goal of the program is to return patients to their optimal level of functioning, and specific goals will vary for each patient after evaluations are completed.

For more information on the new program, contact the hospital at 335-3374.