“My therapists helped me create a plan and achieve my goals. When I was discharged, I knew I was ready to go home. – Wendy Bush
LAST AUGUST, Wendy Bush stepped off the front porch of her son’s Long Island vacation home and missed the bottom step. Her leg was broken. Her son was able to drive her back to Maine for treatment, but the journey back to her own home would take much longer.
As the Vice President of Marketing at F.L. Putnam and a member of the Mercy Hospital board of directors, Wendy knows how to assess a difficult situation and make a sure decision. “I was in a cast and under doctor’s orders not to put any weight on my leg,” she recalls. “I knew I would recover much faster with round-the-clock help. My doctor and several friends recommended The Cedars Rehabilitation Center.”
The Cedars reputation for state-of-the-art healing is growing every day, as is our therapy department. When Rehabilitation Manager Heidi Graff, OTR/L, arrived six years ago, she supervised a handful of therapists determined to set the standard for senior rehabilitation. Today, she helps 45 therapists provide physical, occupational and speech therapy to over 600 patients every year.
“The Cedars led the way on evidence-based practice,” Heidi explains. “We have always provided one-on-one physical, occupational and speech therapy, seven days a week. We have always based treatment and discharge plans on what our patients need and want. The recent changes in Medicare to improve patient experience and outcomes have changed very little for us. The Cedars has always put our patients first.”
Heidi also points to standardized tests as another example of our commitment to clinical excellence. At The Cedars, patient progress is consistently measured to accurately gauge progress and help therapists assess which forms of therapy are working best.
The Cedars rehabilitation therapies are also provided in an airy, sun-drenched space filled with the very best equipment, from exercise machines to iPads. But at the end of the day, it’s about people.
“To be a physical therapist today, you need a doctorate of physical therapy. Occupational and speech therapists need a Masters’. We require ongoing training, and we have teaching affiliations with several colleges and universities, such as the University of New England,” Heidi explains. “Because we work together so closely, we also require commitment and compassion.”
Wendy can attest to this. “It is so difficult to be so dependent on other people,” she explains. “Little things made all the difference. I continued to work during my treatment and needed to stay on top of the financial news. The staff delivered my newspapers, all five of them, every single morning – with a glass of orange juice.”
And after Wendy’s cast was removed she was able to accelerate her therapy. “It hurt!” she remembers with a laugh. “But Karen Rossignol, RPT and Shannon Mercier, OTR/L got me through it. I had five more days to see what I could really do. To have my discharge plan in place. To get my confidence back. When I went home, I knew I was ready.”
After one misstep, Wendy Bush has found her footing. She found that the very best rehabilitative care is at The Cedars.
