Homeless hospital patients often have nowhere to go to recover. Now they have options.

When 57-year-old Robert Creasey was released from the hospital a few days ago, there was no home or family waiting to help him recover from his stomach surgery.

The U.S. Navy veteran is homeless and has been living in Pensacola for the past seven years, bouncing between camps and shelters.

Under a new program that just got off the ground, Creasey was provided a room at Max-Well Respite Center, a transitional housing program in Pensacola under the nonprofit organization Re-entry Alliance Pensacola.

Without the opportunity to heal at the shelter, Creasey said he had few other options.

“I'd have to go camping like I have been in the woods, I guess, or on the streets, on the sidewalk,” said Creasey. “With open wounds, I don't feel very strong, you know? I would not be able to sit here and talk to you now.”

Creasey is one of the first people to take part in a pilot program that provides homeless patients with a bed at the Max-Well Respite Center when they need care after leaving the hospital.

Patients who are experiencing homelessness are considered especially vulnerable because they need a safe and sanitary place to recover from illness and/or medical procedures.

“We want to be sure they have a safe plan of care once we discharge them so that they can continue to heal at home and that's challenging when home is outside,” explained Christie Jandora, nurse and director of emergency services at Ascension Sacred Heart. “This program will provide them a bed to go for up to 90 days.”

Ascension Sacred Heart, Max-Well Respite Center, and Community Health Northwest Florida are partners in the pilot program. They work together to identify patients who need a place to recover and establish a network of care.

The goal is to help them get back on their feet in every sense of the word. Besides assisting with medical care and doctor’s appointments, patients are also offered opportunities for programs and services that will help them stay off the street and live independently should they choose.

Services including helping patients get their birth certificate and ID card, if needed, and entering them into the HMIS system, a national homeless database. They also meet with a case worker and learn more about the classes and life skills taught in the program.

“The ones that can't move out of bed and can't do anything, we're going to cater to them,” said Troy Watts, program director for Max-Well Respite Center. “We'll bring them food and we'll do what needs to be done until they get better, but they still have the program after they get better. You have to participate in these programs we have. This is a team effort, but they still have to want the help.”

Max-Well Respite Center keeps four rooms at their Pensacola transitional housing facility ready for patients. The need is great. Within days of the pilot program’s launch, two patients were sent to Max-Well Respite Center.

“We see homeless patients nearly every day and we want to do our part to not only heal them in the hospital but get them to a better place,” said Jandora.

Waterfront Rescue Mission also launching homeless respite program

Waterfront Rescue Mission, a faith-based homeless outreach program and shelter, has been working with Community Health and local hospitals to provide similar services for a couple of years.

Waterfront’s respite dorm program offers patients who are homeless a place to stay and recover after they have been discharged from the hospital. Without it, most are returned to the streets, which is not a safe or healthy place to recover.

Waterfront Rescue Mission President and CEO Clay Romano is working to expand the respite dorm into a more comprehensive medical care facility staffed with nurses and trained personnel to help patients recover.

Baptist Health Care donated hospital beds from the old campus and 17 of them are at Waterfront’s Pensacola campus, with other beds going to the Mobile program.

Romano says most major hospitals in Pensacola and Mobile have shown an interest in participating in the program and referring homeless patients to the dorm. It’s not only safer and healthier for many patients, but it also cuts down on costs to the healthcare system overall.

“We got an e-mail just today about a gentleman who has been in one of the healthcare's organizations in this area since Dec. 15,” said Romano. “The average cost per day for (care in) a medical surgical bed here in Pensacola is about $1,200,” said Romano. “It’s very expensive. He was there for 84 days and that's $104,000 of cost.  The program is a win for the healthcare system because we help reduce their costs over the course of an annual 12-month period and the patients have an opportunity to stay in a warm, clean facility and have that home-like care that they don't otherwise have.”

Patients are also offered opportunities and services to help them rebuild their lives. Besides the respite care, Waterfront is working with local hospice organizations to provide beds for end-of-life care.

Romano said if all goes as planned, Waterfront is tentatively planning to open the expanded respite dorm in April.

For patients like Robert Creasey, the opportunity for respite care and services to help him become independent is a welcome relief.

“I'm ready to get on with my life,” said Creasey. “I feel like 20 years will be a blessing if I got that much left in me, but if I got a decade, you know, I'd like for it to be different.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Homeless hospital patients get respite care from Pensacola shelters