Director of Admissions, Malke Safran, is Brooklyn born and bred. Malke holds a B.Sc. and a Master's degree in healthcare direction policy from The New Schoolhouse. She'south been at Haym Salomon Habitation for Nursing & Rehabilitation since 2003. Here, she talks about the admissions procedure.

What are the questions families enquire most often before bringing a person to Haym Salomon Domicile?
The families are the ones with the most questions to ask. And with good reason. After all, the patient comes to the states after placing their care, and decisions about their intendance, in their family unit's hands. Any questions the family has, nosotros're here to aid them out. We show them the care plan, tell them what to wait, and let them know how many hours of therapy their loved i will get.

Of course, everyone is worried about money, so nosotros go through insurance with the patient and the family.  We go out of our style to make sure they know if in that location's any co-pay options and deductibles, considering in the back of the patient's mind, money is an issue.

malke saffron admissions director at haym salomon home for nursing & rehabilitation brooklyn nyc

On site, we have what nosotros call a "Medicaid coordinator". Generally, the insurance plans we're working with are Medicare, Medicaid, and HMO. Medicare is available to people over 65 years of age, unless the person requires dialysis, in which instance age doesn't play a function. If you lot're 65 or over, and you lot've worked in the United States, yous more often than not go Medicare.

One of the largest and earliest immigrant groups to come up to the United States were the Russians. They were given Medicare and Medicaid when they came hither. We explain that HMOs decide the length of stay and how much therapy the patient can go. And and then, of course, nosotros have discharge planners and social workers that we work collaboratively with as a team to discuss patients and to find out what their entitlements are when they are discharged.

We accept a lot of patients who come up with knee and hip replacements, fractures, and respiratory issues.

All the access work is washed on the reckoner in New York. There's a sure grade which is prepared by the hospital, chosen a PRI, which stands for Patient Review Instrument. It gives united states the patient's diagnosis, prognosis, their daily living activities, and their potential for rehab. We review it and make sure nosotros tin can take this patient and do the correct thing for them.

The Admissions Section acts as a gatekeeper, making sure we don't allow people to come to the facility who we cannot fairly take care of.  For case, to a patient who has a tremendous amount of oxygen coming in via tracheotomy, we would say: "This is non an advisable place for you lot." The family makes the decision, tells the social worker or the discharge planner at the hospital which facility they would like to come to for rehab. The facility so makes the determination as to whether they have acceptable insurance and whether it tin provide acceptable nursing care.

Do you accept patients in the late evening hours or at weekends?
We're open 24 hours a day and we take patients over the weekend. We adopt that they come in before midnight, at reasonable hours. But hospitals are often delaying admissions because they're waiting for a doc to sign off on a release, or they're waiting for a test upshot. At that place's always numerous steps to take to make certain the paperwork is in society. This includes guidelines on the amount of medication and the dosages, which have to be prepared in the hospital. We then follow those guidelines here with our doctors.

We're very lenient with visitors. Our official hours are x am to 8 pm, but nosotros realize that having a loved i with a patient is an asset, because they are the voice and the spokesperson for their loved 1's care. Ane family member of the same sexual activity can even stay with a patient.

On the phone, patients ofttimes seem lost. They demand to have the entire process explained to them. For example, most wouldn't know that if they oasis't slept on a hospital pillow for three nights, Medicare will not pay for them.

What many people don't realize is that in today'south climate, the powers that exist are looking to dramatically shrink the toll of healthcare. So, if someone can go home and undergo homecare, it's cheaper for the HMOs and the insurance companies. But non everyone is comfortable with an aid. If it's an elderly lady, she may not feel comfortable with an aid – assigned to her past an bureau – completing the most intimate tasks with her.

Information technology's a really tough balance for the family. Here at Haym Salomon Home, it's a supervised environs. When the patient is home alone with only an aid, do we know if that aid has a heart? Practise we know if they intendance? Do we know if they're just watching TV and lying on the bed? Nosotros don't know these things so it'due south always important to have family unit involved.

Today'southward Medicaid is different from the Medicaid people remember. Because now, all of them are attached to MLTCs (Managed Long-Term Care plans). In other words, they're attached to HMOs. Then, for case, if you desire your loved ane to go into Facility A, and Facility A does not take a Medicaid contract, because they're with a particular HMO, that person cannot come into that facility unless they disenroll at the finish of the calendar month. There are a lot of insurance variables at play that people don't know about.

The most important thing, I think, is the fact that nosotros're not a chain. In other words, we're not like a McDonalds, a one-size-fits-all facility. Every discipline in here can be found among our staff: the administrators are on staff, the director of rehab is here, the directors of social workers, the director of nursing. And our doors are always open. If at that place's anything that the family wants to discuss, they're not going to phone call a big bureau that has a chain, they'd rather speak to the people that know their loved ones. Even the principal executive officer, director of marketing, and and then on, are here every bit daily staff. We're a collaborative team.

When I get calls, for example, "I'd like to have an date to take a tour," I say: "Please, don't make an appointment, just come in and catch us the way we are. Come up and listen if the call bells are ringing. Come and smell if there'due south any odor. Come and see how the patients are treated with dignity." I could sell y'all the Brooklyn Bridge, but at that place'southward zippo like coming to run across for yourself.

No 1 makes an appointment to get sick. If they have knowledge beforehand that they are going to get through a process, I tell them: "Do your homework now, don't wait until the final minute." But not everyone has that knowledge that they will need care. So, when people go sick of a sudden and demand care, we're always open and ready to help.