CHRISTUS partners with ContinueCARE for long-term acute care in Longview area

CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Hospital System is partnering with Community Hospital Corporation’s ContinueCARE Hospitals to provide long-term acute care for patients in and around the Longview area.

Patient referrals began on Monday with the first patient being admitted on Tuesday.

Designated as a long-term acute care hospital and operating as Longview ContinueCARE Hospital as a satellite of Tyler ContinueCARE Hospital, it will occupy 32 critical care beds at CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Medical Center – Longview.

“We understand the value of having long-term acute care available to our patients and we are committed to providing that care,” said Todd Hancock, president of CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Health System. “We have seen the incredible job ContinueCARE has done for patients across the country, and we are excited to partner with them to provide that same level of care for our community.”

Hancock said that adding long-term acute care hospital services to the Longview area will greatly reduce the need for patients to be transferred to other facilities. Patients needing long-term acute care often are critically ill patients that require extended hospitalization of 25 days or more.

Longview ContinueCARE Hospital and Tyler ContinueCARE Hospital, which operates in CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital, are the only long-term acute facilities in the Northeast Texas region.

"A long-term acute care hospital is a valuable part of the health care continuum," said Stephanie Hyde, chief executive officer of Tyler ContinueCARE Hospital. “Both our Tyler facility and new Longview satellite to Tyler play a crucial role by providing specialized care for patients with complex medical needs who require extended hospitalization. The Tyler facility has served patients for 20 years while earning high patient satisfaction scores and multiple industry awards, and we are excited to extend this same level of high-quality care to Longview and the East Texas community."

ContinueCARE hospitals are part of Community Hospital Corporation, which owns and manages long-term acute care hospitals with locations in Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, and four Texas locations: Abilene, Odessa, Longview, and Tyler.