Subacute Care - Dignity Health - St. John's Hospital Camarillo

Subacute care is a level of care that medically stable patients receive after a serious illness, injury or surgery. It includes skilled nursing care, personalized rehabilitation therapy and 24/7 medical monitoring to help support your recovery. You may stay in a subacute unit short-term or long-term.

Following subacute care, you may have several options depending on your needs. For example, you may return home with home health care, go to a skilled nursing facility or transfer to an inpatient rehabilitation program to continue healing.

Acute care is a short-term, intensive level of medical treatment. It’s provided in the hospital immediately after a serious illness, injury or surgery. It focuses on stabilizing a patient’s condition, managing urgent symptoms and preventing complications.

Subacute care comes after acute care, once a patient is medically stable but still needs continued treatment or rehabilitation therapy. While it still offers medical care, it focuses more on recovery, therapy and regaining function.

Subacute care is generally for those who need ongoing medical and rehabilitation care before they can return home or to a more intensive inpatient rehabilitation program. Many patients receiving subacute care need a tracheostomy, ventilator, feeding tube, ongoing wound care or IV medications.

Our comprehensive care plans include a wide range of services for both our short-term and long-term adult patients. We offer services such as:

• Advanced intravenous (IV) therapy

• Blood transfusions

• Imaging and laboratory testing

• Medication management

• Nutritional management

• Occupational therapy

• Oxygen therapy

• Pain management

• Palliative care

• Patient and family education

• Pharmacy services

• Physical therapy

• Respiratory therapy

• Speech therapy

• Spiritual support and worship activities

• Tracheostomy care

• Tube feedings

• Ventilator management and weaning

• Wound care

At St. John’s Hospital Camarillo, we have a multidisciplinary subacute team that cares for all aspects of your care, whether physical, emotional or spiritual. In addition to doctors and nurses, your team may include:

• Activity coordinators

• Case managers

• Dietitians

• Occupational therapists

• Pharmacists

• Physical therapists

• Respiratory therapists

• Social workers

• Speech-language pathologists

Usually, your pulmonology (lung and respiratory) doctor and the subacute unit medical director will see you approximately once per week or more as needed. Our nursing staff is also in frequent communication with your doctors regarding your health status and needs.

At the subacute level of care, patients are generally medically stable. Therefore, doctors don’t do daily rounds with their patients as you may have experienced in other units at St. John’s Hospital Camarillo.

Our amenities, devices and activities are meant to make your stay as comfortable as possible. Patients benefit from the many thoughtful touches our facility provides.

Some of our amenities include:

• Adaptive call light equipment (for those unable to use their upper extremities)

• Gift shop (in the hospital lobby)

• Pet therapy

• Spiritual services, including chaplain visits

• Telephones for local calls

• Televisions with cable channels

• Healing garden (on the garden level of the hospital)

• Unit-wide and personalized activities, such as watching a movie, listening to music or playing video games

• Wireless internet

Your coverage for subacute care depends on your health insurance benefits. St. John’s Hospital Camarillo accepts many major health insurance plans, including preferred provider organization (PPO) and health maintenance organization (HMO) plans. We also accept Medicare and Medi-Cal.

Since most plans, including Medicare, have limited coverage, we generally require that an application for Medi-Cal be completed as soon as possible if it appears that your stay will exceed a very short term.

Yes, we ask families to take a tour before we accept their loved one. This visit helps us set expectations and explain the differences between acute and subacute care.

We also welcome visits from hospital case management staff. We receive and regularly accept patients from as far north as San Luis Obispo, inland to Bakersfield/Kern County, and south to Los Angeles and beyond. Sometimes, we accept patients who are in acute hospitals in other locations.

The case management or social work staff where you receive acute care will coordinate with your doctor and the subacute clinical liaison to arrange the transfer.

For information regarding our subacute unit, please contact our clinical liaison at (805) 389-5956. Please fax referrals to (805) 389-5951.

We are conveniently located inside St. John's Hospital Camarillo, which means we have quick access to acute care and emergency services. If you have a medical emergency that requires more care than our subacute unit team can provide, we will take you to the emergency department right away.