What are hospital swing beds? And what is the importance of having a swing bed program in a medical facility?

What are hospital swing beds? Why is the swing bed program so important? Also, I'm curious to know what type of facilities use a swing bed program, and which patients qualify.... Any help is greatly appreciated!

What are hospital swing beds? Why is the swing bed program so important? Also, I'm curious to know what type of facilities use a swing bed program, and which patients qualify.... Any help is greatly appreciated!

developed in the 1970s, formally called the Rural Hospital Program of Extended-Care Services, to use excess hospital beds in rural areas to deliver long-term care for the frail and disabled. Informally, it was known as 鈥渢he swing-bed program.鈥?br>
a swing bed is a term used to describe the use of an inpatient hospital bed for either an acute or a skilled level of care. it applies to rural hopitals with fewer than a 100 beds. some eligibility criteria includes: that a patients must have prior qualifying hospital stay of at least 3 days.

The swing-bed idea arose from a twin set of problems facing rural health care systems: (1) hospitals were built on a scale that often resulted in their having more beds than patients to fill them, and (2) frail elderly people who were disabled often needed to go to nursing homes far from where they lived. In this chapter, Sharon Begley, science columnist with the Wall Street Journal, who has contributed previously to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Anthology, tells the story of how some thoughtful leaders devised a seemingly simple solution to these two problems: use empty hospital beds for patients needing long-term skilled nursing care. Begley goes on to describe how the swing-bed idea developed, even over the initial reluctance of federal regulators to make an exception to Medicare regulations, the suspicion with which nursing homes received the idea, and the uncertainty about the level of care a practitioner could offer the occupant of a swing bed. The idea took hold, however; today, more than 60 percent of rural hospitals have swing-bed arrangements. In retrospect, the swing-bed concept proceeded in an unusually ideal manner: it was tested on a small scale, outcomes were measured, and then the model was slowly expanded to other rural areas. The federal government was involved from the beginning; the Foundation entered as the idea was gathering steam and was able to influence development and help guide the direction it took. As with many service innovations, the Foundation鈥檚 role was strategic and supportive, representing just one force in a larger national effort.