NEW PATIENT CARE UNIT—One of the first patients transferred to Norwood Hospital’s new Intermediary Care Unit is Daniel J. Monahan of Norwood. With the aid of a “walker,” Mr. Monahan, who suffered a fractured ankle, strolls down to the solarium to read. With him is Miss Anne Abril, L.P.N. from Stoughton, who has been assigned to this experimental unit.
An Intermediary Care Unit—A brand new concept in patient care—was opened at the Norwood Hospital on January 21. This unit is designed for patients taking their first step homeward—patients who do not need the high-level, intensive nursing care provided throughout the rest of the Hospital—but patients who still need the extended-care that only a hospital can provide.
Located on the second floor of the newly-renovated East Wing, 30 patients can he accomodated here in one of the six, four-bed rooms, the two, two-bed roonfs or the two private rooms. Daily service charges here begin at $24.50 and may be commensurate with the patient’s ability to pay.
This experimental Intermediary Care Unit was envisioned when plans were drawn for the Hospital’s expansion and renovation program. It was felt that better use could be made of nursing personnel by assigning them according to the NEEDS of the patient, rather than solely by the NUMBER of patients on any one floor. This, ultimately, will allow the nursing staff to devote more time to the seriously ill patients.
Patients are not admitted directly to this unit, but are transferred there upon the recommendation of their private physician. Typically, a patient might be admitted to the Norwood Hospital as a result of a fractured hip, or a cardiovascular accident (stroke). After a period of treatment on a medical or surgical floor, where the patient received intensive nursing care and called upon many ancillary departments such as x-ray and laboratory, he might then be transferred to the Intermediary Care-Unit, where his needs for nursing care would be less urgent, and the costs of his hospitalization somewhat reduced. However, by remaining in the Hospital during his transitional, or intermediary period, all of the Hospital’s facilities and special equipment would be instantly available to him if the need arose.
Head nurse of this new Intermediary Care Unit is Miss Mary A. Pendergast, R.N of Norwood. It is expected that ultimately the staff will consist of one registered nurse and six licensed practical nurses or aids for each shift. A graduate of St. Margaret’s Hospital in Dorchester (now St. Catherine Laboure School of Nursing), Miss Pendergast joined the Norwood Hospital staff in 1944, clue to a shortage of nurses brought on by the war. Prior to that she had done private duty nursing hero since 1929, She has been in charge of private rooms; Ward T, the area presently occupied by the Hospital’s cafeteria; a temporary ward now occupied by the Operating Rooms; the former East II, which was for medical and surgical female patients; East IV, prior to the recent renovations there; and now, the new Intermediary Care Unit. Miss Pendergast, her sister and three brothers were all educated in Norwood schools. Her great-grandparents settled in Norwood in 1852. She currently makes her home with her sister at 30 Pleasant Street.
Most recently, the area presently occupied by the intermediary Care Unit had been used by* the Central Sterile Supply Department during the period of expansion of that department. Prior to that, the Women’s Ward was located there. The entire floor was renovated, with television monitors mounted on the walls of every patient’s room. A fire-proof ceiling was installed there, as in all other parts of the Hospital, and new electrical fixtures and equipment placed in the kitchen, nursing station and throughout the floor. A solarium at the end of the corridor offers patients the opportunity to socialize, in informal setting.
The Hospital plans to add a Physical Medicine Department to its growing list of services. This department would be located adjacent to the Intermediary Care Unit, as it would probably be used to a great extent by these patients. This new department, although not under way at the present time, will be undertaken shortly and will broaden the public’s use of the Hospital as a community medical center.
Administrator Charles A. Richardson has said, “The Intermediary Care Unit appears as a logical step in ministering to the overall changing needs.