I was paralyzed and I didn't know how was I going to be
able to feed myself, how to clothe myself,
how to even do anything for myself at all.
I wanted to be able to go to the bathroom on my own.
I wanted to be able to dress myself.
That was the short-term goal.
But I also looked at all these people around me
doing what they loved, the practice of medicine,
the practice of nursing, and I realized that was my strength
and I just wanted my strength back.
This place has taught me never give up.
[snickers] Never give up.
♪♪
Rehab brought me face-to-face with the intensity of
my disability so that I really understood
what had happened to me.
At the same time, it gave me the hope I needed and the skills
I had to have to go forward in my recovery.
♪♪
Henry J. Kaiser was the first to recognize the need for a
specialized rehabilitation center within Kaiser Permanente
and his reasons couldn't have been more personal.
In the late 1940's, Henry J. Kaiser's son
was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and treated by
the founders of our center.
Mr. Kaiser wanted to extend this treatment to the KP members
and the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center
first known as the Kabat-Kaiser Institute was born.
From the early days, it was recognized that the multiple
impairments and disabilities caused by an injury or illness
often requires intense and specialized care,
particularly in the first phase of recovery.
The Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center, or KFRC,
has been providing that care and support now for over 60 years.
A safe and caring environment that focuses exclusively on
promoting recovery, the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center
has been designated as a national center of excellence
for individuals with disabilities by
the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Culturally Competent Care.
KFRC is a 50-bed rehabilitation hospital and outpatient center
located within the Kaiser Permanente Vallejo
Medical Center, one of 122 hospitals across the US winning
the Consumer Choice award for having the highest quality
and the most positive image.
Our inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs provide
care for individuals with disabilities caused by stroke,
acquired brain injury, spinal cord injury,
multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular disorders,
major multiple trauma, amputations
and some orthopedic disorders.
Our center combines various therapies and specialized
programs with rehabilitation nurses working around the clock
and rehabilitation physicians making rounds
seven days per week.
The Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center
understands that rehabilitation can be a long and complicated
journey and beginning that rehabilitation process with
maximum support through the interventions of providers with
specific expertise, knowledge and skills goes a long way
toward determining a patient's outcome.
It's in the first crucial phase with early intervention by a
specialized interdisciplinary team that the Kaiser Foundation
Rehabilitation Center yields its greatest benefits.
The Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center uses a
coordinated interdisciplinary approach to lessen the impact of
impairments, increase self-sufficiency,
enhance coping abilities, increase purposeful activity
and promote community participation.
Through the setting of realistic short-term goals,
each individual is more likely to achieve their long-term goal
of returning to a meaningful life outside our center.
Those goals could include climbing Yosemite's Half Dome,
regaining the skills necessary to complete her dream of
finishing the illustrations for a children's book,
holding her baby
or getting back to the practice of medicine.
The Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center knows
how to help patients make critical choices at every
step of the way.
The approach is simple.
The patient and his or her family is the center of a
comprehensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation team.
This comprehensive approach is what sets the Kaiser Foundation
Rehab Center apart and is what makes it so successful
in helping patients to achieve long-term recovery.
This team boasts a world-class group of experts.
It includes physiatrists who are physicians who specialize in
physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Physiatrists establish both a medical and functional diagnosis
and prognosis and prescribe medications and therapeutic
interventions and orchestrate the various components
of the treatment plan.
Rehabilitation nurses are available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
Rehabilitation nurses offer direct care,
coordinate the patient's daily schedule
and provide patient and family caregiver education.
They're also the frontline patient and family advocates.
Physical therapists assist the patient by teaching ways
to improve mobility and they teach patients how to become
more functional by the use of wheelchairs, braces
and equipment for transfers and improving mobility.
Occupational therapists are trained to help patients
optimize participation in activities of daily living
in various environments including home, work
and school.
Speech language pathologists provide interventions
for patients with communication and cognitive disorders
or swallowing problems related to various conditions.
Social workers assist the patient with personal
or family issues created by the injury or illness
and act as a liaison between the individual, the family
and community resources.
Case managers assist the patient and family with issues related
to health plan coverage, durable medical equipment costs
and the continuum of care after inpatient rehabilitation.
Neuropsychologists provide evaluations of cognitive,
emotional, social and behavioral factors that may be
related to the individual circumstances and develop
treatment programs that can address these issues.
Recreation therapists promote the patients' reintegration into
individual or group activities to develop or foster
social skills and constructive use of leisure time.
The patient is the focal point of the rehabilitation team
that works together to ensure the patient's realistic recovery
goals are achieved.
Patient and family education occurs throughout the
rehabilitation process to help reduce anxieties and fears
and promote recovery.
What this facility gave me,
which I don't think I could have gotten any place else,
was an integrated approach to wellness.
Each team member with their expertise worked together
to make a whole, to make all the parts of me respond
and reintegrate and get well at the same time.
This is a place where I could experience all the different
needs I had being met at once.
You can't do that anyplace else.
It's this approach that makes the difference.
It is the bridge between disability, injury to home.
It is the place that allows you to bridge that gap between
where you were before your injury or disability
to where you're going to be to move on into your life.
The Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center
understands that the patient's family is an indispensable part
of the rehabilitation team.
The center works closely with families helping them understand
the nature of their loved one's injury and teaching techniques
to support their recovery.
When you put all these therapists and everybody
together, it makes a whole picture
and it's unbelievable what it's done for him.
Hospitals, which I've been in several for different surgeries,
they're very limited as to people visiting you.
They're always kicking them out of the room.
Here they invite you as a family member to watch the process
and progress.
He was stiff, he couldn't move,
and now a week later he can walk, he can talk, he can eat.
He can eat by himself.
He couldn't do that, couldn't do nothing,
so I don't know what to say.
I am so grateful for this place.
Since reintegration into the community is a principal goal
the center provides places where patients and their families can
practice the skills needed to function and progress further
in their recovery in a home environment.
Here they can also practice working with modified equipment
like specially-adapted kitchen implements that simplify
the transition home.
The center sponsors weekly community outings where patients
get out of the hospital environment and shop at the
local farmer's market.
To see that you haven't lost your independence and you're
still able to do those things that make you happy.
Today is just a good day.
With a superb reputation that reaches beyond the borders of
Kaiser Permanente, the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center
is recognized as a national and international leader
in its field.
The Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center
is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation
of Rehabilitation Facilities.
This means that we meet rigorous guidelines for service
and quality for our comprehensive inpatient and
outpatient programs and specialty care in
brain and spinal cord injury rehabilitation.
This endorsement recognizes that KFRC programs and services
have met consumer-focused state-of-the-art
national standards of performance.
But our biggest reward is the endorsement of our patients
and the smiles and courage and hope on their faces.
♪♪