SeniorCare at Forest Park Hospital is a comprehensive program designed to meet the health care needs of senior patients. Coordinated through the hospital's case management department, SeniorCare provides nursing home staff members with easy access to medical professionals in specialties ranging from physical and occupational therapy to psychiatry and sleep disorders.

To access the services listed below, contact the case management department at (314) 768-3008. Case management personnel answer the line from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; voice mail messages left at other times of the day or on weekends and holidays are immediately forwarded to the on-call case manager for response.

- Case Management
- Speech/Hearing
- Podiatry
- Psychiatry
- Spiritual Care
- Sleep Disorders Center
- Wound Care
- Seniors' Driving Assessment Program
- Transportation
- Oncology
- Laboratory
- Occupational Therapy
- Home Health
- Education
- Physical Therapy
- Orthopedics
- Cardiology and Cath Labs
- Cardiac Catheterization Lab
- Hospitalist
- Admitting, Central Scheduling and Patient Accounts

Case Management
The case management department at Forest Park Hospital works to promote the smooth transition of patients into and out of the hospital by working closely with attending physicians and nursing home staff members. Its advanced database allows case managers to help:

- Track patients' levels of functioning from admission to admission.
- Assist physicians in determining the appropriate charge plans for patients.
- Facilitate patients' return to their previous living arrangements.

Supplementing this information base are patient assessments performed by the department's registered nurses and social workers. In addition, case managers work to:

- Contact nursing homes to determine how they may assist physicians during the transition process.
- Determine if patients' needs may be addressed at nursing homes, or if patients require additional inpatient care before nursing home takes over.
- Keep the nursing homes updated on patient status and discharge plans.

Case managers' in-depth knowledge of patients' status enables them to communicate to physicians when cost of care or intensity of services might be prohibitive to long-term care facilities. In these situations, a short stay in the Forest Park Sub-Acute Unit may enable patients to receive needed treatments, minimize use by the hospital of patients' precious Medicare resources, and allow long-term care facilities to maximize their health care dollar under the Prospective Payment Plan.

Speech/Hearing
Forest Park Hospital's speech/hearing department evaluates and treats a variety of communication and swallowing disorders. Using the modified barium swallow study, a comprehensive evaluation of swallowing disorders may be performed to determine a patient's ability to swallow safely. A specially designed chair is used for each study. Study results are promptly faxed to patients' nursing homes.

The department also provides off-site, in-service education on swallowing disorders, aspiration precaution strategies, and tips on how to spot patients with swallowing problems. Alzheimer's patients are another area of concern, and the department employs an experienced clinician who offers an in-service program designed for long-term care staff. The program instructs staff members on how to deal with the communication and orientation problems of Alzheimer patients.

Audiology services are also available, with hearing screenings provided at nursing homes. When appropriate, patients may visit the speech/hearing department for hearing aid fittings.

Podiatry
Forest Park Hospital provides St. Louis-area geriatric patients with comprehensive foot care services. Foot complaints and problems in the elderly are common and significant factors in the development of limited mobility, function, disability, impavement, gait imbalance, increasing pain and discomfort. Foot impairments, changes and deformities also represent risk factors for the elderly developing many significant complications of multiple systemic diseases and the potential for lower-extremity amputation.

These factors may change an independent older adult into one unable to carry out the activities of daily living. The podiatry services of Forest Park Hospital attempt to ensure maximum quality of life for the elderly through comprehensive assessment and treatment of foot problems.

Psychiatry
Forest Park Hospital's Geropsychiatric Unit provides acute psychiatric care for patients designed to:

- Help improve their level of orientation.
- Maintain and enhance their functional capacities.
- Reestablish their ability to make decisions about behavior.
- Adjust their medication.
- Improve their ability to perform at the highest level of functioning in activities of daily living, within the limits of their current physical and mental capacities.

Treatment deals with the individual issues related to aging and is delivered by a multidisciplinary treatment team, whose members consider the holistic needs of each patient. Depending upon each client's stage of growth and development, special attention is given to his or her medical, safety, emotional and social needs. In addition, treatment extends beyond patients to include family members as well.

Discharge planning begins at admission, and assistance is available for planning patients' living arrangements after their release from the hospital.

Forest Park Hospital's psychiatric clinical nurse specialist is available to provide in-service programs to nursing home staff members on depression in the elderly, substance abuse in the elderly, delirium versus dementia, reminiscence therapy, and behavioral management of the confused/agitated client.

Spiritual Care
Chaplaincy/Spiritual Care offers patients and families resources on such issues as death/dying, grief and loss, and coping with life transitions. Three full-time chaplains are available, as well as students participating in the chaplaincy training program. Student chaplains make initial visits to many new inpatients to assess spiritual needs, and full-time chaplains follow-up with identified referrals.

Sleep Disorders Center
The Sleep Disorders Center at Forest Park Hospital offers testing and treatment services for sleep disorders, in particular sleep apnea, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, periodic limb movements in sleep, narcolepsy and sleepwalking. A specialty Insomnia Clinic is also available.

Common sleep disorders, which may increase in prevalence with age, may be found in the elderly. Many individuals over age 70 may frequently have difficulty sleeping at night, and the problem may be related to an untreated sleep disorder.

Wound Care
Specialized services to treat chronic wounds may be effective in facilitating the healing process. When available together, clinical wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) provide physicians and nurses with advanced treatment alternatives. Hyperbaric oxygen may be used as an effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of a variety of clinical conditions, including non-healing ischemic wounds, refractory osteomyelitis, radiation soft tissue injury and enhancement of failing graphs or flaps. In addition, hyperbaric oxygen treatment may be used for emergency conditions such as arterial gas embolisms and carbon monoxide poisoning.

A skin and wound specialist is available for telephone consultation on skin/wound care issues between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Transportation
Forest Park Hospital provides local transportation services, at no additional charge, to our nursing home customers. Regular service hours are between 7:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., with after-hour services arranged by special request. Both passenger and wheelchair vans are utilized.

Oncology
Forest Park Hospital's 24-bed Oncology Unit provides services for diagnostic, acute and terminal cancer care. Outpatient services for oncology patients are also available.

Laboratory
The laboratory at Forest Park Hospital provides a wide range of diagnostic testing services to nursing homes, including hematology, chemistry, blood bank, microbiology, immunology, histopathology and cytopathology. Through Medi-Serve, the laboratory outreach program, mobile phlebotomists provide scheduled and state phlebotomy and specimen pick up. Results are provided according to customer preference and volume by phone, fax, mail, courier delivery or dedicated printers supplied by Medi-Serve. The laboratory provides the materials and supplies required for collecting specimens.

Medi-Serve customer service lines are staffed during normal business hours, and calls during off hours are handled by the main laboratory. To inquire or set up services, call SeniorCare Access Line at (314) 768-3008.

Occupational Therapy
The Occupational Therapy Department offers training for nursing home staff in such areas as patient positioning, reality orientation programs, sensory stimulation for unresponsive patients, feeding programs and rehab nursing interventions. Occupational therapists are available to fabricate hand, wrist, elbow, knee or ankle splints for patients with contractures and other problems.

Education
Tenet's Education Department provides periodic advanced cardiac life support programs, which are open to the public. Nursing homes wishing to send staff members to the program may call the SeniorCare Access Line, (314) 768-3008, for upcoming program dates.

Physical Therapy
Physical therapy services are available to assist in teaching and training staff, patients and families in areas such as safety, education, conditioning, exercise, balance and prevention. Presentation topics include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiac, mastectomy, amputation, arthritis, strokes, diabetes, low-back pain, neck pain, women's wellness and general information.

Orthopedics
Forest Park Hospital's orthopedic physicians and surgeons specialize in musculoskeletal surgical and nonsurgical medicine, including trauma, adult reconstruction, spine injuries, plastic and hand surgery, and orthopedic infections.

Cardiology and Cath Labs
The cardiopulmonary rehab program at Forest Park Hospital provides care for both inpatients and outpatients. Inpatients receive education and exercise instruction from qualified nurses and physical therapists when appropriate. Inpatients also receive a dietary evaluation from a registered dietician. For outpatients, the cardiopulmonary rehab program continues the education and exercise programs initiated in the hospital, a service provided in the newly renovated outpatient cardiopulmonary rehab area on the hospital's main level.

Cardiac Catheterization Lab
The Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Forest Park Hospital provides evaluation and treatment of coronary artery disease on an inpatient and observation status. Other procedures performed in the lab are evaluation of valvular disease and cardiomyopathy and placement of temporary or permanent pacemakers. Coronary artery disease evaluation is done through cardiac catheterization and may be treated in the lab with balloon angioplasty and/or coronary stent placement.

Hospitalist
When a nursing home patient requires hospitalization, adding another stop on the rounding schedule of a primary care physician (PCP) with a busy nursing home and/or office practice can create logistics problems. Forest Park Hospital can put a nursing home in contact with a group of board-certified internal medicine physicians who provide hospital medical coverage (hospitalist) while patients are in the hospital. The hospitalists communicate daily with PCPs and fax information regarding admission, update reports and discharge notifications and summaries.

Hospitalists are able to admit and care for patients on medical surgical floors and intensive care areas 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All patients are referred directly back to their PCP.

Admitting, Central Scheduling and Patient Accounts
Forest Park Hospital feels that your time is very important. Any time you have any inquiries about Admitting or Patient Accounts, call Red Campbell, Customer Service/Credit Supervisor at (314) 768-3526 or Barbara McEvoy, Admissions Manager, at (314) 768-5680.