How Newport Hospital can help you regain health and independence after serious injury

Hospitalization can be unexpected and overwhelming, even under elective circumstances. For patients with a serious injury or debilitating illness, such as a heart attack, stroke, brain injury, or spinal cord injury, the road to recovery can seem unattainable for both them and their loved ones. In these circumstances, inpatient rehabilitation can be the most effective path to recovery.

By design, inpatient rehabilitation is for patients who require intensive, interdisciplinary rehabilitation services in a hospital setting. The goal is to help patients regain lost function so they can return to the community and live as independently as possible. This could include regaining skills necessary for completing activities of daily living like bathing and dressing; maximizing muscle control and strength; improving balance, mobility, swallowing, eating, and speaking; optimizing communication skills; and minimizing pain and cognitive deficits.

Patients in these settings are provided with at least three hours of skilled therapy services per day, at least five days per week. Therapies provided should include: physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and/or speech and language therapy (ST).

At Vanderbilt Rehabilitation Center (VRC) at Newport Hospital, patients receive this type of comprehensive care. Physical therapists assess their needs and develop a plan of care to enhance their strength, endurance, and safe functional mobility. Physical therapists at VRC utilize their training, decades of experience, and state-of-the-art technology to get patients back on their feet. One such piece of technology is the EksoNR, the first of its kind to be cleared by the FDA. It is a wearable robotic exoskeleton that helps patients with stroke, acquired brain injury, spinal cord injuries, and multiple sclerosis to stand and relearn how to walk.

Occupational therapists focus on activities of daily living, all the basic things a person needs to do throughout the day, as well as the mobility, strength and cognition (thinking, memory, problem-solving) associated with those things. Activities of daily living include bathing, dressing, using the bathroom, and managing medication. Patients at VRC are fortunate to have access to a functional apartment in which to practice these activities with support from their therapists and nurses.

Speech-language pathologists assess and treat communication deficits such as trouble understanding speech, difficulty with speaking, and cognitive impairments that affect problem solving, memory, and higher-level thinking skills. They also address deficits in safe swallowing.

With a multidisciplinary approach and care teams that include physicians, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, psychologists and case managers, a patient’s road to recovery is within reach.

Patricia Wolfe is the Vice President of Rehabilitation Services for Lifespan. Health Matters appears monthly in The Newport Daily News and on newportri.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Newport Hospital rehabilitation center helps patients regain health