Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital Opens.

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ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 2004

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago will provide full range of

Rehabilitation Services through affiliation with

Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital 

The Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital opened its doors on February 12, 2004. Dedicated exclusively to physical and rehabilitation medicine, the new hospital will give residents of Chicago's Northwest suburbs more convenient access to world-class care.

The three-story, 66,000 square foot, 50 bed facility, located on the campus of Alexian Brothers Medical Center (ABMC), will be operated by Alexian Brothers Hospital Network (ABHN) in affiliation with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC). Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital will provide the same expert care that has earned RIC the ranking of "Best Rehabilitation Hospital in America" by U.S. News & World Report every year since 1991.

"RIC's level of expertise, the quality and integrity of their programs, and the extensiveness of the clinical care they will bring to this hospital presents a great opportunity for us, and ultimately, our patients," says Mark Frey, chief executive officer of Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital. Many of the physicians and some management staff will be RIC employees.

Rehabilitation programs and services now housed in ABMC's Niehoff Pavilion and on the ABMC campus will be moved into the new rehabilitation hospital. "It's a beautiful and significantly larger space that will allow us to offer a broader continuum of care and help more patients," Frey says.

The new hospital features six more inpatient beds than at Niehoff Pavilion and a new day rehabilitation program that can serve as many as 20 patients a day. Outpatient programs, counseling, support groups, as well as on-site and community-based education programs will also be offered.

The new hospital will treat a wide range of patients, such as people with stroke, brain injuries, joint replacements, spinal injuries, amputations, or workplace injuries, and people struggling with arthritis, Parkinson's disease or other movement disorders.

Every aspect of the new rehabilitation hospital has been designed to meet the special needs of rehabilitation patients. Bathrooms and other areas, for example, have been designed to accommodate people in wheelchairs. "Like all RIC patient care centers, this hospital is designed for the accommodation of patients with disabilities and their families," says Dr. Elliot J. Roth, senior vice president and medical director of RIC and Donnelley chairman of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

A team of rehabilitation specialists will work closely with each patient and family to help them achieve their specific goals. The team is led by a physiatrist (a doctor who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation), and may include physical and occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, recreational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, psychologists, orthotists and prosthetists, and vocational rehabilitation specialists. These teams of professionals "will work with the patient and their family to help them achieve the best life possible," Roth says.

Patients can begin receiving rehabilitation care during hospitalization at ABMC or St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, ABHN's two acute-care hospitals. "Even patients with basic problems can benefit from therapy whether it be physical, occupational or speech," according to Adrienne Sarnecki, R.N., M.S.N., C.R.R.N., the hospital's administrative director. "For example, if a geriatric patient is hospitalized with the flu, and is in bed longer than expected, he or she can lose strength and endurance. A physical therapist can help increase strength and mobility and may prevent other conditions, such as blood clots from developing."

Patients will have access to outpatient care which provide a full range of therapeutic services for a wide range of conditions from sports injuries and back problems to chronic pain and arthritis. Outpatient services formerly located in the Niehoff Pavilion and another site on the ABMC campus will be consolidated at the new hospital, giving patients convenient access to the hospital's interdisciplinary rehabilitation team.

Plans are underway for a day rehabilitation program for adults and children, who are recovering from injury or illness and need multiple, integrated rehabilitation services to regain or improve their physical functions. Patients will participate in half- or full-days of rehabilitation care four to five days a week. "It's an effective alternative to the 'either-or' of staying in the hospital or going to a therapist's office," Frey says. "It's more intensive care than a single therapist can offer, so you progress on multiple levels, simultaneously. And you can go home at night and be with your family."

The day rehabilitation program reflects the hospital's overall emphasis on giving patients options and customizing their care to meet their individual needs, Frey says. "We can tailor-make our programs," he says. "We are not one-size-fits-all."

Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital will be the centerpiece of ABHN's new Rehabilitation Center of Excellence, which will coordinate patient care with the network's seven other centers of excellence. Those centers focus, respectively, on neurosciences, oncology, cardiovascular services, orthopedics, pediatrics, behavioral health and older adult services.

The relationship between the Alexian Brothers and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago began in 1993, when RIC assumed responsibility for managing ABMC's 32-bed Rehabilitation Center. Located in the Niehoff Pavilion, the center was renamed the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at Alexian Brothers Medical Center.

In addition to Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital, St. Alexius Medical Center, ABMC and the centers of excellence, ABHN includes Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates, Ill., and a variety of community-based programs and services. The network is a subsidiary of Alexian Brothers Health System, a diversified Catholic health-care system based in Elk Grove Village and sponsored by the Immaculate Conception Province of the Congregation of Alexian Brothers. The system provides acute care, elderly services and a variety of community-based health-care programs through facilities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and Tennessee.

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago is dedicated to helping people with all levels and types of physical disabilities regain or improve their physical functions and empowers them to participate more fully in family, social, vocational and leisure time pursuits.

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