UH?Geauga Unveils Expanded Services

August 29, 0204

By Gwen Cooper
Geauga Family YMCA and University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center are once again partnering to improve the quality of life and health for area residents.
This time, the health-oriented organizations have collaborated to build a new Outpatient Rehabilitation Services and Aquatic Center, located at the Geauga Family YMCA on Bass Lake Road.
“This new center furthers our philosophy of patient diagnosis and treatment,” Rehabilitation Manager Dotti Thompson said during a ribbon cutting ceremony last Friday. “We always ask what can we do more to help our rehab patients and this helps to answer that.”
The new facility offers expanded outpatient rehabilitation care with an aquatic therapy pool, a new $50,000 Bioness unit to help stroke and severely injured patients regain movement, and other sophisticated electronic equipment that can determine a patient’s strength and range of motion as well as measure progress, according to information released by University Hospitals.
“Welcome back,” Greater Cleveland YMCA President Glenn Haley said to UH Geauga Medical Center officials. “You were our original partner in the beginning of this building and we are glad to again partner with you.”
An open house is set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 28 for the public to see the new facility and enjoy a variety of otehr activities.
On tap for the opening is the Radio Disney Road Crew for music, games and family photo opportunities. Also planned are interactive health and fitness activities, relays and other competitions for prizes.Located at 12460 Bass Lake Road, the rehabilitation center has its own entrance and separate facilities from the more public YMCA exercise areas.
The specialized aquatic therapy pool has its own separate room as part of the medical unit.
Staffed with medically trained, certified occupational and physical therapists and technicians, and stocked with state of the art equipment, the center offers hand therapy, balance therapy and specialized programs to help injured workers return to work and others return to their routine functions, according to UH officials.
One apparatus, called the BTE, can simulate a worker using hand tools, such as a jack hammer or screwdriver, said Physical Therapist Allison Evans, of Bainbridge, who demonstrated the BTE and Bioness equipment.
It can measure and record progress as well as provide measured resistance for strength building, she said.
A computerized unit that resembles a video arcade game simulates driving to help patients regain skills to drive their car again, said Occupational Therapist Donna Barber, who demonstrated the progam.
Senior Development Manger Perry Clark said the center is a catalyst to open up space at the main hospital campus to add more beds for inpatient care. Planned are 16 new rooms, a second lab and an expanded orthopedic suite.
Clark said the patient load has doubled at the hospital over the past several years and 100 new doctors have been recruited for the hospital offering more specialized care, such as cancer treatment.
The hospital is also functioning as a Level III trauma center and is working toward its certification for that by early next year.
In charge of fundraising, Clark said about $200,000 was raised to convert the former Heather Hill health and wellness space in the YMCA building to the UH Geauga rehabilitation center.
Included in that was the $50,000 raised by the hospital’s women’s auxiliary for the Bioness equipment.
“This is a perfect collaboration with the YMCA,” Thompson said. “It offers our patients new technology for a faster recovery and when they are finished, they can go next door and talk to one of the Y’s personal trainers to take their recovery to the next step using the Y’s services.”