Our Health Matters series concludes this morning with our
final segment about the important work being done at
inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, and I'm happy to say
that I'm on location, once again, at HealthSouth, one of
the premier inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the
country, with over 100 hospitals nationwide.
I'm joined, once again, By Dr. Dexan Clohen, HealthSouth's
chief medical officer, and Sheryl Miller, national director
of therapy operations.
Ladies, I want to thank you again for partnering with us on
these great segments.
This is our final one, and Dr. Clohen, let's recap a little bit
about what you do here at HealthSouth.
Well, HealthSouth is a system of rehabilitation hospitals.
So, people who have found themselves either by injury or
illness losing function, unable to do the things they need to do
in their life.
Mobility, speaking, thinking, whatever it is, can find
themselves being at an advantage to come to a place where they
get a higher level of care, where the therapy is very
intense, the medical care is very close.
And doctor, the last time we were here, we talked a little
about some of the conditions you treat.
Let's talk more about this.
We treat a whole range of conditions.
The ones that come frequently to people's minds when they think
of a rehabilitative hospital are conditions like stroke, spinal
cord injury, brain injury, amputation, very dramatic sudden
types of loss of function, but we also take care of patients
who have had complicated cardiac conditions, complicated lung
situations, whole body infections, multiple trauma, a
whole of range of people can benefit from rehabilitation
hospital services.
Dr. Miller, that's a pretty comprehensive list.
Let's talk about someone, let's say for example, who has a hip
fracture.
What kind of rehabilitation would they expect?
Well, we often see patients with hip fractures in our hospitals,
and the first thing we're concerned with their course is
their medical stability or their medical management, so our
certified rehabilitation nurses will work with the patient to
make sure they're medically stable.
They're getting the medication.
They often will need a pain medication, because of the
injury.
They may need some wound care because of the wound or if they
had surgery.
Then, we move on to the therapy part of it, and we're concerned
with their mobility after the hip fracture.
We are also concerned about their ability to take care of
themselves, dress themselves, bathe themselves, feed
themselves, anything that's interfering with their simple
self care.
The final thing that I think is very important to us is the
education they're going to need to return home safely, so it's
very common, actually 1/3 of all elderly adults over the age of
65 will fall every year.
Most of our hip fractures are due to falls, so we must
continue to provide them really good education about how they
can prevent or reduce falls at home.
Sometimes that's a simple as having a night light in the
home, watching your pets, picking up carpets off the
floor.
We have to make sure they're safe to go home, because we
don't want them coming back to HealthSouth with another injury
because they fell at home.
Strokes are another common diagnosis we see in our
hospitals and there are some commonalities between the hip
fractures.
We're concerned with their medical management, their
mobility, their self-care, but I think the thing that makes it
more complicated for us to treat the stroke patients is injury to
the brain.
Sure.
So, with the brain injury, we may see things like difficulty
communicating, speaking, we may have difficulty thinking with
their cognitive skills, memory, problem solving, reasoning that
we do every day, and finally they may have some difficulty
swallowing, because of the injury to the brain.
So, then they may require what we call speech therapy, so
speech language pathologists would treat our patients that
have strokes pretty often.
Dr. Clohen, before you send somebody home, let's talk about
what you look for in terms of progress.
The key is to have them be safe and ready and have to continue
their improvement after they're out of the hospital, so at the
very beginning when they arrive, with the physician's supervision
and direction, game plan is really established, so we work
with the patient and their family to decide what their
goals are, what they need to do to be able to go home safely.
So, we tried to take care of all of their medical needs, all
their therapy needs, nursing needs, and send them home with
the team sending them off and cheering.
This has been such a great partnership.
I've been through it, and I've seen it, and you guys are moving
mountains here.
Fulfilling, doctor?
This is absolutely the best practice of medicine, the
speciality of physical medicine and rehabilitation, and health
south provides a setting where that can be done with the
patient right at the center.
Dr. Miller?
I think most of us look our whole lives for a career where
we can make an impact with people, change lives, and at
HealthSouth, we're able to do that everyday.
And they're very fortunate to have you two, and everybody else
here.
God bless your entire team and HealthSouth.
Thank you so much.
And for viewers who maybe are looking to put someone in a
place like this, where can they go doctor?
HealthSouth.com or ask your doctor or discharge planner in
an acute care hospital about a rehabilitation hospital, make
sure to use the word hospital, you'll get a higher level of
care.
And I've learned right now the difference.
Thank you so much ladies.
God bless both of you.
And for more information on HealthSouth and any of these
segments that we've done, just go to our website.
That's TheBalancingAct.com.
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