Most assisted-living facilities have on-site staff who can assist with medications and are available 24 hours a day for problems that come up. They either have on-site care, or they contract agencies that can provide personal attendants, nurses, and physical and occupational therapists on an as-needed basis. Often they provide congregate meals and a number of social activities. Most residents of assisted-living facilities are able to perform their own self-care activities like dressing, bathing, and eating. Some facilities are either contiguous with, or have arrangements with facilities that provide higher levels of care should the resident become more impaired, but others require residents to move when they become too dependent.
Subacute care units are designed for a patient's continued treatment in a setting where the intensity of care is less than that in a hospital setting, but still provides continuous registered nurse supervision. An example would be the need for extended intravenous antibiotic therapy for some types of infections. The development of subacute care has been driven largely by attention to cost containment and the desire to limit extremely expensive hospital care.
Rehabilitation units are similarly designed for patients whose hospital stay has left them too weak to return home, or who need more time and physical therapy to regain their independence. A good example would be a patient with a hip fracture. Some rehabilitation units are located in a special area of the hospital, but more commonly they are separate facilities, or special units in a nursing home developed especially for this purpose.
