Post-operative recovery is a leading source of skilled Part A SNF days across surgical types — orthopedic (covered in depth in the Musculoskeletal reference), abdominal, cardiothoracic, vascular, and others. The skilled work is common to the post-operative course: incision and drain care, VTE-prophylaxis administration and monitoring, pain control calibrated to enable therapy participation, enforcement of the surgeon’s precautions, and — above all — surveillance for the complications that drive readmission: surgical-site infection, bleeding, venous thromboembolism, ileus, wound dehiscence, and atelectasis/pneumonia.
This overlay proves, for each billed day, that skilled post-surgical observation, a covered procedure, rehabilitation nursing, management, or teaching was reasonable, necessary, needed daily, and available only in a SNF under Pub. 100-02 Chapter 8. Use it with the Musculoskeletal reference for orthopedic detail and with the reference for the operative system.
