5 Different Types of Health Care Facilities

Depending on the nature and severity of your injuries, you may end up in a health care facility that is more specialized than a regular hospital of health center. Here are some of the types of specialized health care facilities you may be transported to, depending on the nature of your injuries.

Trauma Center
A trauma center is a hospital that is equipped to provide extensive emergency medical services to patients suffering from traumatic injuries. The injuries that a trauma center treats are ranked from Level I to Level IV, with the most serious cases at Level I facilities. Because trauma centers are expensive to run and not very common; patients outside major cities have to be airlifted to one. Washington State's main trauma center is Harborview Medical Center which is located in Seattle, Washington.

Rehabilitation Center
A rehabilitation center is a facility where patients work to reestablish or relearn abilities they lost because of a serious injury through therapy. Physical therapy helps with movement or previous loss of movement, which occupational therapy might focus on relearning activities of daily life or finding ways to perform them despite a new disability.

Burn Center
A burn center focuses on patients with serious burns. They not only treat burn injuries, but work to help patients return to everyday life often with therapists, social workers, psychiatrists and other professionals who are not conventional doctors. Many hospitals have burn areas in them but the Specialized Burn Centers in Washington are located at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, Tacoma's St. Joseph Medical Center and Spokane's Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Assisted Living Facilities
These facilities may be appropriate for injury victims who need long-term physical or occupational therapy and help with everyday living. This might be true of someone with a severe brain injury or spinal damage. In addition to providing meals and housekeeping, as at a nursing home, the staff at an assisted living facility works with patients to help them regain independence and abilities. Some patients are able to return home eventually; others may need to remain in a facility throughout their lives.

Home care
Home care is an option for patients whose injuries do not require full time hospitalization. A nurse or other health care professional might visit everyday or a few times per week. Depending on the injuries, the professional might do anything from changing bandages to administering a treatment with an IV to helping with personal needs.