By Jan Marino, Director of Transitional Services
Seinfeld was an award-winning TV Sitcom about nothing. But mention Seinfeld and all the favorite episodes are recalled – remember the one about the black and white cookie? Or the one when Kramer spits a Junior Mint into a body on the operating table?
Palm Garden of Ocala is launching a new program called FASTtrack and it’s a program without a program! It’s a clever way to describe the work we do every day. FASTtrack stands for Focused Assessment, Safe Transition. What does that mean to you, the potential guest? We will get you home fast with the support you need.
Our guests’ journey with us most often begins in the hospital and the clinical record is reviewed to be sure we can meet the medical and therapy needs of the potential guest. Then, because our guests are people, we begin the process of learning more about the individual. Once at Palm Garden, you aren’t “Room 503” or “the hip replacement”. Our guests are more than a room number or diagnosis. They are people with social, spiritual and emotional needs in addition to the more obvious medical needs. We want to know about you. How do you spend your leisure time? If you’ve been debilitated for a while, what do you miss doing the most? Are you active physically or have a wide circle of friends? Do you play music or have a creative outlet? We want to hear it all because we want to treat you like family.
Once admitted, our award-winning care begins following simple A, B, Cs. A stands for Assessment. When our guest arrives, our Transitional Nurse assesses for pain as well as whether the new guest is hungry or thirsty and too cold or too warm. In other words, are they comfortably settled in their bed with the freshly fluffed pillows for which Palm Garden is known? B stands for Basics and that’s basic care beginning with vital signs taken on each shift, medications correctly ordered and administered under physician orders and an initial care plan. C stands for Consistency. Palm Garden ensures pain medications are provided and the individual care plan created specifically for each guest is followed and tweaked on an ongoing basis.
This describes our initial FASTtrack, but other FASTtracks include respiratory, cardiac, pulmonary and orthopedic following A, B, C protocols for each.
So how is FASTtrack like Seinfeld? It’s a program without a program, delivered by an award-winning team and our goal is to make every guest feel better at the end of the day. And maybe we will even share a laugh along the way.