Landmark Hospital is pioneer in long-term acute care

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Columbia, Mo., most recently gained a Landmark Hospital location in 2009. There are two other hospitals in Joplin, Mo. and Athens, Ga.

Cape Girardeau's Landmark Hospital was the first of three acute care hospitals of its kind to be established in Missouri.

The Cape Girardeau location, owned by a joint venture between Landmark Holdings of Missouri LLC and Saint Francis Health Development Services Inc., aims to provide specialty care for critically ill patients around the clock.

As the only long-term acute care hospital located between St. Louis and Memphis, Landmark Hospital offers multispecialty medical services, post-stroke and cardiac care, surgical recovery, treatment of respiratory infections and disorders that require ventilators, wound and ulcer care and low tolerance rehabilitation. The hospital also offers physical, occupational and speech therapies. An emphasis on multi-disciplinary planning is a form of treatment used.

John Marshall, patient support

At the hospital, patients are seen daily by physicians and treated by nurses and respiratory therapists around the clock. Their goal is to provide specialized care for patients who are too ill to stay in a nursing home. All the nurses and therapists at Landmark Hospital are certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, ensuring that heart patients have access to the most qualified care possible. Private rooms are available to all patients. Although the hospital currently runs 30 beds, the facility is designed to expand up to 42 beds.

Landmark Hospital completed an accreditation process shortly after its opening four years ago. The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. They were also certified by Medicare in 2006.

Patients are sent to the hospital by referral only by short-term, general acute care hospitals when it is determined they need more specialized and lengthy care. The hospital is not a competitor to general care hospitals, as it does not run an emergency room.

According to Rodney Brown, the CEO at Landmark Hospital in Cape Girardeau, a goal for 2010 is for the hospital to continue to expand its referral base in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and western Kentucky.