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Frequently Asked Questions
How is Trillium licensed?
What is a Long Term Care Hospital (commonly referred to as an LTACH)?
When was Trillium established?
How is Trillium different than a “nursing home”?
Why is Trillium superior to other conventional specialty hospitals?
Why is Continuity of Care so important?
What is the difference between a hospital like Trillium and a full-service Community or Regional hospital (like Banner Desert Medical Center or St. Joseph’s Medical Center)?
Who was Hearthstone and why does information on Trillium appear on “nursing home ratings” websites?
How does payment for services work?
What if a patient’s medical condition changes for the worse?
What is a Rapid Response Team?
What types of patients does Trillium accept?
What criteria would PREVENT a patient from being admitted to Trillium?
How does Trillium coordinate necessary surgical or diagnostic procedures?
What type of training does Trillium provide to clinical staff?
What is the average length of stay of a patient at Trillium?
What will happen if a patient was not able to fully recover and required long term care?
Which physicians/specialties practice at Trillium?
What insurance plans does Trillium accept?
What are Trillium’s visiting hours?
How can I obtain more information about Trillium?
How is Trillium licensed?
Each Trillium location is licensed as a 120 bed Special Hospital by Arizona Department of Health Services, Division of Licensing, Office of Medical Facilities. In addition, we are certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) as a Long Term Care Hospital (“LTACH”) provider and a Skilled Nursing (“SNF”) provider
What is a Long Term Care Hospital (commonly referred to as an LTACH)?
A Long Term Acute Care Hospital is a type of specialty hospital that typically manages patients with complex conditions and acute care needs requiring an extended hospital stay. LTACH hospitals address a niche of critically ill patients, many of whom have multiple medical issues and require hospital care for a greater duration than the 3-5 days that are typical in the general acute care hospital setting.
When was Trillium established?
Trillium was established in May 2008 following two deficiency free initial licensing surveys conducted by Arizona Department of Health Services.
How is Trillium different than a “nursing home”?
Nursing Care Institutions (“nursing homes’) serve an important purpose in the health care continuum, but were originally intended for ongoing long-term residential patients. The nature of services can vary dramatically from one nursing home to another. Nonetheless, hospitals are required to have certain infrastructure that nursing homes simply do not have.
Examples of the infrastructure you will find at Trillium but will not find in a nursing home are:
- Organized Medical Staff (physicians)
- On-site ancillary services such as a licensed hospital pharmacy, hospital level dialysis treatment center, lab and radiology facilities
- Critical Care level staff with Advance Cardiac Life Support (“ACLS”) certification
- Specialized medical equipment (such as bronchoscopes, ICU monitors, ECG capability, wireless telemetry capability)
- Access to specialist physicians who will typically not follow patients in nursing homes
- Specialized care such as ventilator and complex respiratory care, cardiac and hemo-dynamic monitoring, hemo-dialysis and complex wound / skin care management
An additional limitation that presents itself in the nursing home setting is the difficulty of the nursing home to deal with a patient suffering a change of condition. Usually nursing homes do not have the infrastructure of critical care staff that Trillium has, and thus the de-conditioning patient will be sent out to a hospital via 911 paramedic, which in turn introduces a disruption in continuity of care and a sometimes traumatic trip for the patient through the Emergency Services system.
Lastly, many nursing homes are oriented toward long term residential care whereas Trillium’s goal for all patients is recovery, healing and a return to independence.
Why is Trillium superior to other conventional specialty hospitals?
Most “conventional” specialty hospitals are very capable providers but suffer a significant limitation. Many patients admitted to specialty hospitals will require some level of care after their specialty hospital stay in order to safely return to their home environment. Conventional specialty hospitals cannot provide this additional level of care and instead must discharge the patient to another provider (often a nursing home). The discharge provider is not known at the time of the patient’s admission, and the change in setting will bring about a disruption in continuity of care. Trillium is superior to these providers due to the fact that we can usually provide the additional care within our continuum and eliminate the need for another provider or disruption in continuity.
Why is Continuity of Care so important?
Our health care system contains multiple levels of care and different types of settings, and can at times seem fragmented. The multiple levels of care are intended to create efficiency, narrower focus of services, and cost containment.
While cost containment is a very legitimate objective, the down-side of this for the patient is disruption in continuity of care. Trillium has resolved this problem by fusing two levels of care in the same setting so that the patient can move from our Acute Care Unit to our Transitional Care Unit to allow for a complete recovery from illness without disruption in continuity or the need to move to another provider. If necessary, this continuum can also work in reverse in the sense that Trillium can accommodate many patients suffering a change in condition for the worse by transferring the patient to a higher level of care within Trillium instead of a disruptive (sometimes traumatic) transfer to another hospital’s Emergency Department.
What is the difference between a hospital like Trillium and a full-service Community or Regional hospital (like Banner Desert Medical Center or St. Joseph’s Medical Center)?
General Acute Care hospitals, whether regional or community in nature, are the traditional hospital setting and typically offer a full array of services including Emergency Department, Surgery, Intensive Care, Labor & Delivery, etc. Over the years, the emphasis, for cost containment reasons, has become to shorten length of stay at traditional hospitals to the point where today the average length of stay for most patients is approximately 3-5 days. Although, this may be perfectly adequate for many patients, this short length of stay generally restricts the ability of the traditional hospital to design and deliver a comprehensive therapeutic program of care to the patient who may have more complex needs . Specialty hospitals like Trillium are designed around a focused niche of patients that require an extended hospital stay and therapeutic program. Thus, when certain patients are identified at the traditional hospital level as being good candidates for an extended therapeutic acute stay, Trillium serves the role of integrating with the traditional hospital to provide a solution that the traditional hospital is not optimized to provide.
Who was Hearthstone and why does information on Trillium appear on “nursing home ratings” websites?
Trillium succeeded a skilled nursing facility provider called Hearthstone who operated for many years at the locations now occupied by Trillium. When Trillium took over from Hearthstone, we established new entities, brought in new management, completed a comprehensive renovation of the properties and installed the necessary infrastructure to become a hospital, and be awarded hospital licenses by Arizona Department of Health Services in May 2008. The Medicare Provider identifier specifically attached to Trillium’s Transitional Care Unit (“TCU”) was assumed from Hearthstone due to the process required by the Federal government. This means that the various websites including Medicare.gov contain references to Trillium that include history that is, in reality, associated with Hearthstone. Unfortunately this distinction is not very clear to the viewer.
As a practical matter, nearly every aspect of Trillium’s operations has been newly implemented on or after May 2008 and bears little or no similarity to Hearthstone’s prior operations. Virtually all employees and management are new and/or recruited from the hospital industry. As a result, the historical information related to Hearthstone is not a relevant indicator of Trillium’s current quality levels, and can be misleading.
When making any decision about a health care provider for yourself or a loved one, we recommend visiting the provider in person, meeting the staff, and asking any questions that may be on your mind.
How does payment for services work?
Most patients admitted to Trillium are covered under some type of insurance benefit. Examples of insurance coverage include Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage policies, Commercial insurance policies, Employer plans, Worker’s Compensation, etc. Each insurance benefit plan is unique, and in some cases co-payments or deductibles may apply, and in other cases they do not. Our Admitting and Case Management staff will advise the patient/family on the scope of primary and secondary insurance coverage and whether there will be any patient responsibility for payment. In addition, our staff will provide financial counseling and information about eligibility for various government sponsored programs where applicable.
What if a patient’s medical condition changes for the worse?
If a patient’s condition changes for the worse, Trillium can often accommodate the situation either by moving the patient to a higher acuity section within Trillium, or in some cases bringing in the Critical Care personnel from another unit for intervention. Additionally, consulting specialist physicians are available on Trillium’s staff to intervene if necessary.
What is a Rapid Response Team?
A Rapid Response Team is a designated group of trained staff members, all of whom are certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (“ACLS”), who are available at a moment’s notice to intervene in a change of condition situation that requires immediate assessment and management. Trillium has a formalized Rapid Response protocol and has successfully applied it in numerous situations where seconds counted. To see a more detailed overview of our Rapid Response program click here.
What types of patients does Trillium accept?
For an extensive listing of Diagnoses and Conditions supported at Trillium, please click here.
What criteria would PREVENT a patient from being admitted to Trillium?
Certain acute situations would prevent a patient from being admitted to Trillium or possibly sent out from Trillium to a traditional hospital. Examples of these conditions would include: Acute Myocardial Infarction, Upper GI Bleed, Surgical Abdomen requiring STAT consult, Cardiogenic shock requiring Cath Lab, Acute CVA (stroke) for potential TPA, Neurological Bleed, Acute Ischemic Limb or a patient requiring immediate invasive surgical intervention.
How does Trillium coordinate necessary surgical or diagnostic procedures?
Trillium has a working relationship with nearby General Acute Care Hospitals that provide surgery and diagnostic study services, and in the event the procedure cannot be performed at Trillium,we will arrange for the procedure to be performed off-site and the patient returned to Trillium immediately afterwards. Usually, a Trillium staff member will accompany the patient for the procedure.
What type of training does Trillium provide to clinical staff?
All Trillium clinical staff are required to have the following:
- Pre-hire competency screening, license verification and background check
- Annual competency review
- Monthly staff meetings for instruction and protocol review
- New program training
- Specialized training and education provided by physician Medical Staff
- New product training and in-service provided by contracted vendors
- Topic of the month forums with Trillium’s Chief Medical Officer and Critical Care Program Director (Intensivist)
What is the average length of stay of a patient at Trillium?
The average length of stay for a patient is very specific to that particular patient’s needs and situation. Another factor is whether the patient will benefit from services in our Transitional Care Unit (“TCU”). On average patient stays range from as little as 10 days to as long as 60 days.
What will happen if a patient was not able to fully recover and required long term care?
In the event a patient cannot meet the goal of return to independence or prior level of function, our Case Management department will provide discharge options and community resources to help the patient/family identify an appropriate and safe setting.
Which physicians/specialties practice at Trillium?
Click here to see an overview of Trillium’s Medical Staff along with a link to download a complete Medical Staff roster for each Trillium hospital.
What insurance plans does Trillium accept?
Click here for a list of accepted insurance plans. Trillium is continually adding additional insurance plans to our list of accepted plans, and in many cases can accept a patient based on a special case agreement with a health plan.
What are Trillium’s visiting hours?
Visiting hours are 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. seven days per week.
How can I obtain more information about Trillium?
Please browse our website for more information. We invite you to call or email for answers to any questions or for any additional information. Click here for contact information. Last but not least, we welcome a visit and an opportunity to tour you through our hospital to meet our staff and see what we do.
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