- Transitional Care Centers are popular in the West but are now gaining traction in India, these centers extend rehab and medical care to hospital discharged patients and helps them to fully recover before heading home
- Ucchvas in Hyderabad is one such Center. The Adult Transitional Care Center is looking to expand to other cities in the country
IndiGlobal Bureau
The term “Adult Transitional Care Centers” was not known to many in Hyderabad or for that matter in the country until a few years ago. However, they are becoming an integral part of healthcare set up in India. In a nascent stage in India Transitional Care Centers are likely to witness a steady growth over the next five years in various States.
Patients discharged from hospitals may require further subacute medical care management. Professionally-manned transitional care centers provide the humane touch as would a family member. These transitional centers are a complementary to hospitals.
Intensive physiotherapy, skilled nursing and critical medical rehabilitation services, especially to the discharged patients coming out of the hospitals after surgeries, transplantations or prolonged illness is the USP of these quality transitional and rehabilitative care centers.
On an average, around 250 million patients are discharged across Indian hospitals annually. Of them around 75% of them are medically fit to go home while the remaining 25% require additional support either in the form of long-term acute care, skilled nursing care, and transitional care with medical inputs, in-patient rehabilitation support.
The patients discharge number is expected to rise significantly over the next decade due to the population getting various health issues due to changed lifestyle and eating habits and also because of jump in number of private hospitals in the last 5 to 10 years.
“Ucchvas treats patients who need to recoup after a complex medical condition with focussed therapy regimes administered with individualized care. We offer scientifically structured facilities, including therapeutic rehabilitation for neuro, spine injury, ortho and sports, pulmonary and cancer rehabilitation, physiotherapy, and therapies ranging from occupational, speech and swallow to nutritional therapy, apart from rehab counselling,” added Dr. Rampapa Rao, Founder of Ucchvas (a sigh of relief), an adult transitional care center located in Hyderabad.
He points out that the aim is to help reduce hospital readmission rate and improve long-term patient outcomes
Ucchvas, which has two Centers in Hyderabad, has facilitated over 2,000 successful patient transitions from rehab to home and has achieved in excess of 50,000 occupied bed days since its inception in 2018.
Sharing his perspective, Dr Rampapa Rao said they faced a big challenge initially due to lack of awareness in the population about transitional care centers and the rehab services being offered. However, from last one and half year, people had to come know about these centers, and as such Ucchvas has seen consistent high occupancy rates.
Ucchvas is keen to expand its footprint to other cities in India like Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Visakhapatnam and Ahmedabad in the near future.
