Virginia Law

A. Adult long-stay acute care hospital criteria.

1. The resident must have long-term health conditions requiring close medical supervision, 24-hour licensed nursing care, and specialized services or equipment needs. The population to be served includes individuals requiring mechanical ventilation, individuals with communicable diseases requiring universal or respiratory precautions, individuals requiring ongoing intravenous medication or nutrition administration, and individuals requiring comprehensive rehabilitative therapy services.

2. At a minimum, the individual must require physician visits at least once weekly, licensed nursing services 24 hours a day (a registered nurse whose sole responsibility is the designated unit must be on the nursing unit on which the resident resides, 24 hours a day), and coordinated multidisciplinary team approach to meet needs.

3. In addition, the individual must meet at least one of the following requirements:

a. Must require two out of three of the following rehabilitative services: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-pathology services; each required therapy must be provided daily, five days per week, for a minimum of one hour each day; individual must demonstrate progress in overall rehabilitative plan of care on a monthly basis; or

b. Must require special equipment such as mechanical ventilators, respiratory therapy equipment (that has to be supervised by a licensed nurse or respiratory therapist), monitoring device (respiratory or cardiac), kinetic therapy; or

c. The individual must require at least one of the following special services:

(1) Ongoing administration of intravenous medications or nutrition (i.e. total parenteral nutrition (TPN), antibiotic therapy, narcotic administration, etc.);

(2) Special infection control precautions such as universal or respiratory precaution (this does not include handwashing precautions only);

(3) Dialysis treatment that is provided on-unit (i.e. peritoneal dialysis);

(4) Daily respiratory therapy treatments that must be provided by a licensed nurse or a respiratory therapist;

(5) Extensive wound care requiring debridement, irrigation, packing, etc., more than two times a day (i.e. grade IV decubiti; large surgical wounds that cannot be closed; second- or third-degree burns covering more than 10% of the body); or

(6) Multiple unstable ostomies (a single ostomy does not constitute a requirement for special care) requiring frequent care (i.e. suctioning every hour, stabilization of feeding, stabilization of elimination, etc.)

B. Pediatric/adolescent patients in long-stay acute care hospitals criteria.

1. To be eligible for long-stay acute care hospital services, the child must have ongoing health conditions requiring close medical supervision, 24-hour licensed nursing supervision, and specialized services or equipment needs. The recipient must be age 21 or under. The population to be served includes children requiring mechanical ventilation, those with communicable diseases requiring universal or respiratory precautions (excluding normal childhood diseases such as chicken pox, measles, strep throat, etc.), those requiring ongoing intravenous medication or nutrition administration, those requiring daily dependence on device-based respiratory or nutritional support (tracheostomy, gastrostomy, etc.), those requiring comprehensive rehabilitative therapy services, and those with a terminal illness.

2. The child must minimally require physician visits at least once weekly, licensed nursing services 24 hours a day (a registered nurse whose sole responsibility is that nursing unit must be on the unit on which the child is residing 24 hours a day), and a coordinated multidisciplinary team approach to meet needs.

3. In addition, the child must meet one of the following requirements:

a. Must require two out of three of the following physical rehabilitative services: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-pathology services; each required therapy must be provided daily, five days per week, for a minimum of 45 minutes per day; child must demonstrate progress in overall rehabilitative plan of care on a monthly basis; or

b. Must require special equipment such as mechanical ventilators, respiratory therapy equipment (that has to be supervised by licensed nurse or respiratory therapist), monitoring device (respiratory or cardiac), kinetic therapy, etc; or

c. Must require at least one of the following special services:

(1) Ongoing administration of intravenous medications or nutrition (i.e. total parenteral nutrition (TPN), antibiotic therapy, narcotic administration, etc.);

(2) Special infection control precautions such as universal or respiratory precaution (this does not include handwashing precautions only or isolation for normal childhood diseases such as measles, chicken pox, strep throat, etc.);

(3) Dialysis treatment that is provided within the facility (i.e. peritoneal dialysis);

(4) Daily respiratory therapy treatments that must be provided by a licensed nurse or a respiratory therapist;

(5) Extensive wound care requiring debridement, irrigation, packing, etc., more than two times a day (i.e., grade IV decubiti; large surgical wounds that cannot be closed; second- or third-degree burns covering more than 10% of the body);

(6) Ostomy care requiring services by a licensed nurse;

(7) Services required for terminal care.

4. In addition, the long-stay acute care hospital must provide for the educational and habilitative needs of the child. These services must be age appropriate, must meet state educational requirements, and must be appropriate to the child's cognitive level. Services must also be individualized to meet the specific needs of the child and must be provided in an organized manner that encourages the child to participate. Services may include, but are not limited to, school, active treatment for mental retardation, habilitative therapies, social skills, and leisure activities. Therapeutic leisure activities must be provided daily.