Waterford, Wisconsin · Joint Commission Accredited
Admissions (262) 534-8509Patients & families
Plain-language guides to specialty hospital care, rehabilitation and the move home — free to read, print or share.
59 guides
Hospital care and referrals
What will the next hospital need to do on the first shift? If your patient is stable for transfer and still needs daily hospital treatment, Lakeview Admissions can review the case.
3 min read
Hospital care and referrals
The next step depends on the care a person still needs. Use these sections to discuss breathing support, wound treatment, brain injury, stroke and the setting that can safely bring those treatments together.
9 min read
Hospital care and referrals
Use this guide to prepare a referral, compare possible settings and identify the information the next clinical team needs before a transfer.
11 min read
Hospital care and referrals
Start the call with what changed, what the patient still needs and the decision you want help with. Lakeview’s liaison can then identify which records to review.
3 min read
Hospital care and referrals
If the team recommends another hospital stay, start with one question. What treatment does my loved one still need each day? The answer helps the rest of the conversation make sense.
3 min read
Hospital care and referrals
You can speak with Lakeview Admissions before deciding where to go. Bring the questions that matter to your family, whether they concern the care team, insurance or what a day here would look like.
4 min read
Hospital care and referrals
When several teams share responsibility for one person, small gaps can affect a transfer. Use this guide to connect the bedside plan, the receiving team, the family and the payer.
5 min read
Hospital care and referrals
This dated briefing explains why a 2022 publication shifted attention from days on a ventilator to tolerance of breathing trials. Use current clinical and payer guidance for a referral today.
2 min read
Hospital care and referrals
Respiratory failure can continue after a person leaves intensive care. This guide connects the evidence discussed in the original pulmonary paper with practical questions about ventilation, mobility and transition planning.
4 min read
Hospital care and referrals
During the COVID-19 emergency, many hospitals had to coordinate transfers while coping with staff shortages, delayed care and high-acuity admissions. This briefing explains the historical findings and how to use them in a referral conversation today.
3 min read
Hospital care and referrals
At Lakeview, the right referral starts with what a person needs today. Some people need more time for hospital treatment. Others are ready to work intensively on movement, communication or self-care.
35 min read
Hospital care and referrals
A useful referral describes the care the patient needs between now and tomorrow morning. Tell Lakeview Admissions which treatments must continue and what help the patient needs between them.
2 min read
Hospital care and referrals
For clinical partners considering how an accountable care organization (ACO) coordinates complex hospital care, rehabilitation and follow-up. The case and financial figures in this brief describe an earlier network.
3 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
After a long ICU stay, breathing, talking, thinking, moving and eating can all take work. This guide explains how these parts of recovery fit together and what to ask about each one.
4 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
A move out of intensive care can bring relief and new questions on the same day. Here is how to prepare, who you may meet, what recovery can involve and what to ask before the next move.
10 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
Getting dressed can take more effort after a flare-up of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Before discharge, ask someone to watch you use your inhalers and help you plan that first morning home.
8 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
A person who cannot speak may still be able to tell you what they want. Before you settle in, ask the nurse whether a nod, gesture or picture board works best today.
5 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
After intensive care, familiar tasks may take more energy or concentration. Changes in strength, thinking or mood that begin or worsen after critical illness can be part of post-intensive care syndrome (PICS).
5 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
Call 911 for sudden severe trouble breathing. In the hospital, alert staff immediately. If you have been treated for pulmonary edema, ask what caused fluid to collect in your lungs and what to watch for after discharge.
6 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
Call 911 for new severe trouble breathing. In the hospital, alert staff immediately. Respiratory failure means the body is getting too little oxygen, retaining too much carbon dioxide, or both.
4 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
A loved one can be stable enough to move out of the ICU and still need daily medical care. Work through the sections that fit your situation and bring the notes to your next conversation with the team.
10 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
A tracheostomy is an opening in the neck into the windpipe. If you have a tube in that opening, ask the team what it helps you do today and how to let someone know if you are uncomfortable.
4 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
Pneumonia is an infection in one or both lungs. Before leaving the hospital, ask which changes in cough, breathing or energy the team expects and which should prompt another medical assessment.
4 min read
Breathing and recovery after intensive care
Bring one example from an ordinary day to your follow-up visit. What you were trying to do, when you noticed a change and how much help you needed can tell your clinician where to start.
4 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Tell a prospective therapist what you want to get back to. Five steps to the front door, a low sofa or a walk to the mailbox can be a useful starting point for the first visit.
2 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
If you are recovering from a heart event or procedure, ask your cardiology team whether supervised cardiac rehabilitation belongs in your plan. Confirm who will refer you and where you would go.
3 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Bring a goal you can demonstrate. Show the therapist the part of a daily activity that has become hard, then agree on what you will practice before the next visit.
2 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Pick a task you expect to help with at home. Watch the therapist demonstrate it, then ask to practice your part while the therapist watches both of you.
4 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Your instructions depend on the injury and the operation. Ask the therapist to show you how your movement or weight limits apply when getting out of a chair or using the bathroom.
5 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Before choosing a setting, ask how much help the stroke survivor needs during the day and overnight. Then ask each team how it would support an activity the person wants to regain.
2 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Rehabilitation reaches beyond scheduled therapy. Getting dressed, moving to a chair or asking for help at breakfast can give the Lakeview team a practical goal to work on with you.
3 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Ask which movements and weight limits apply to your operation. Before the ride home, practice one transfer that matters to you, such as getting into the passenger seat of your car.
3 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Describe your entrance, your usual chair and your bathroom to the therapist. Together, identify the step or transfer that needs practice before you leave the hospital.
4 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Choose a task you want to do more easily, like putting on a coat or preparing breakfast. An occupational therapist can watch you try it and help you work on the part that gets difficult.
2 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
If illness or injury has changed what you can do, ask which setting can meet both your medical and therapy needs. An inpatient rehabilitation review considers your goals, current abilities and support between sessions.
3 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Think about a trip from bed to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Tell your therapist who will be there to help, what equipment you will use and where the route gets difficult.
2 min read
Rehabilitation and daily life
Choose one activity the stroke survivor wants back. Breakfast at the kitchen table, for example, can bring movement, self-care and communication goals into the same rehabilitation plan.
3 min read
Conditions and treatment
A different meal schedule or medicine dose can change your usual diabetes routine. Ask the team to walk through tomorrow’s breakfast, blood sugar checks and medicines with you.
6 min read
Conditions and treatment
Ask the team to write down whether you had bleeding, a blockage or another problem in your digestive tract. That detail helps you follow the right instructions for meals, medicines and your next visit.
6 min read
Conditions and treatment
Before discharge, ask which changes in your breathing, swelling or weight should prompt a call. Get instructions for your own situation, including the number to use after hours.
6 min read
Conditions and treatment
Before a move, find out whether more kidney treatment is planned and who will review the next blood test. If dialysis continues, confirm the next appointment and how you will get there.
2 min read
Conditions and treatment
If more than one organ needs support, ask the physician to explain how the treatments fit together. Start with the change that matters most for your loved one today.
4 min read
Conditions and treatment
Call 911 if someone with an infection becomes suddenly confused, has severe trouble breathing or gets much worse quickly. Tell the dispatcher you are concerned about sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection.
4 min read
Conditions and treatment
Ask what caused the wound and what the team expects to see at the next check. That explanation can make the dressing and positioning instructions easier to follow at home.
7 min read
Conditions and treatment
After a stroke, give your loved one time to answer for themselves. If you notice a sudden new change in speech, strength, balance or vision, call 911 or alert hospital staff immediately.
4 min read
Conditions and treatment
If treatment for an infection will continue after transfer, ask who owns the next dose and who will review the next test result. Write those answers beside the medicine name.
4 min read
Conditions and treatment
A button that is suddenly hard to fasten or a familiar task that is difficult to finish can be worth describing to your clinician. Explain what changed, when it started and which part you need help with.
5 min read
Conditions and treatment
A new area of warm, swollen, tender or discolored skin needs prompt medical assessment. Cellulitis is a bacterial infection that affects the skin and the tissue underneath it.
4 min read
Conditions and treatment
Osteomyelitis is a bone infection. If treatment continues after a hospital stay, ask which clinician will check that it is working and who will handle medicines, dressings and test results.
5 min read
Conditions and treatment
Choose one activity you want to work on, such as moving from bed to a wheelchair or reaching your phone. Your rehabilitation team can help identify which steps you can practice safely.
6 min read
Conditions and treatment
Call 911 for sudden changes in balance, vision, strength or speech, even if they pass. Tell the dispatcher what changed and the last time the person was known to be well.
4 min read
Conditions and treatment
Call 911 after a head injury for danger signs such as repeated vomiting, a worsening headache that will not go away, a seizure, new weakness or difficulty waking the person.
4 min read
Conditions and treatment
If a sudden change suggests stroke, call 911 immediately, even if it goes away. Talk through what to say with someone who spends time with you, so either of you can make the call.
3 min read
Families, discharge and coverage
Think through the first morning at home while your hospital team is still with you. Start with the first medicine, the first meal and the task you are least sure you can manage.
2 min read
Families, discharge and coverage
Trace the route from the car to the bathroom and then to bed. A step, a narrow doorway or a low seat is worth discussing with your therapist before you leave.
2 min read
Families, discharge and coverage
Ask your loved one what kind of visit would feel good today. A short conversation, a favorite photo or a few quiet minutes together can make the visit easier to enjoy.
2 min read
Families, discharge and coverage
Start with the things your loved one uses to see, hear and communicate. A pair of glasses or a familiar communication aid may be more useful at the bedside than a suitcase of extras.
4 min read
Families, discharge and coverage
A discharge plan gets its first test at home. After a meal, a trip to the bathroom or the first medicine dose, note anything that was harder than expected and tell your care team.
4 min read
Families, discharge and coverage
Have your insurance card, the facility name and the proposed level of care ready. Ask what coverage has been confirmed for this stay, what still needs a decision and what you may owe.
4 min read
