BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — When you’re discharged from the hospital, you oftentimes still need to recover and take care of yourself but not everyone has somewhere to go for that.
Thanks to the Brundage Lane Navigation Center, they do now. The new Recuperative Care Dorm is for those experiencing homelessness when they leave the hospital.
“As a nurse, we sometimes see individuals in the acute care setting who don’t have the most optimal ability to go home and continue their wound care, continue their IV and antibiotics," said clinical director Margaret Johnson.
Johnson said that at the new dorm, nurses from Kern Medical will help patients fully recover and heal, even if they don’t have a home or family to return to.
“By coming here and utilizing this clinic, the nurses are able to substitute that care that they may receive from their family while educating the patient,” said Johnson.
The facility has nineteen beds, plus bathrooms, showers, isolation rooms and exam rooms.
Natalee Garrett with Kern Medical said this partnership between the hospitals and the shelter will further the fight against homelessness.
"Homelessness is something that our community has tried very diligently to combat for several years now and it’s nothing that we're gong to cease to try to combat anytime soon, and so this is just one additional avenue for us to be able to address the needs of our homeless population and get them off the streets in their time of recuperation," said Garrett.
But she also said this will help all of us, not just those facing homelessness.
“It frees up our own hospital resources so it's not just a benefit to the hospitals themselves, but to all members of the community, so it really is this cyclical benefit," said Garrett.
“I think it’s an incredibly important resource. If we didn't have this, the person would leave the hospital [and] have nowhere to go. If they’re not completely healed, then they're just going to end up back at the hospital," said Johnson.
The facility is in a soft opening phase right now, only taking a few patients at a time but they’re expecting to open more beds throughout the month and be fully occupied by the end of May.
If you’d like to learn more about the Brundage Lane Navigation Center, click here.
