Our Therapy Team:
Front row: Stephanie Tague, PTA, Wojech Ryba, PT, Tim Ehlinger, PT, Katie Lingle, FRD, OT. Back row: Tara Wiersema, PTA, Carol Reifsnider, Rehab Aid, Katie Dykema, COTA, Carissa Scheper, OT

Eagle Point Nursing & Therapy staff includes physical, occupational and speech therapists that work together to make sure that each patient receives a well-rounded treatment program. It is important to us to diagnose the root of the problem rather than just the symptoms. Our extensive specialty programs include fall prevention, urinary incontinence, lymphademia, orthopedic rehabilitation, pain management, and many others. We also use our specialty programs to treat our long term residents. It is important to maintain strength and quality of life for all our residents.

• Physical Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Speech Therapy
• Transitional Living Program
• Respiratory Therapy
• Modalities
• Wound Care
• Pain Management
• Fall Recovery & Fall Prevention
• Pulmonary Disease

Physical Therapy

Injury and illness can take a toll on the body's strength and mobility. Physical therapists can help patients regain strength, coordination and balance and reach specific goals, such as independent movement, wheelchair mobility or walking.

Physical therapy services are designed to provide every patient with a comprehensive evaluation followed by an individualized treatment plan. Our therapists emphasize patient participation and follow-through. Services include:

• Orthopaedic assessments of musculoskeletal problems
• Patient education and home program instruction
• Comprehensive post falls assessment and interventions
• Gait analysis (for patients who are having problems walking); fall recovery, balance training
• Manual therapy techniques, including joint mobilization, positional release, strain/counter strain and muscle energy
• Therapy for chronic pain problems and pain management techniques
• Stroke rehabilitation to restore function after a stoke
• Treatment of chronic, non-healing wounds through the use of state of the art equipment
• Diagnosis and rehabilitation of vestibular disorders for patients suffering from dizziness
• Continence management
• Orthotic and prosthetic training
• Pulmonary Rehab
• Strengthening activities to restore muscle function
• Body mechanics to prevent injury and accident

Occupational Therapy

Everyday activities such as cooking or getting dressed can be difficult for people who have been seriously injured or suffer from a debilitating disease. If a patient needs assistance in regaining independence in daily living skills, our occupational therapists can help.

Our occupational therapists work with the patient, family members and referring physician to develop an individualized treatment plan. Therapists take individuals through a variety of daily living activities such as bathing, dressing and preparing meals. For example, a person might be taught to use a bathtub seat, grab bars or long-handled sponge for bathing or to use reachers to obtain objects from shelves.

Specialized techniques may be used to help individuals with cognitive functioning, such as increasing their visual awareness or improving short-term memory and reaction times. For instance, if a patient's field of vision in the left eye has been cut, that person will need to be trained to be aware of everything on the left side of the environment.

If a patient can no longer perform a skill, the therapist can teach alternatives. For example, a right-handed person who has sustained injury to the right hand can be taught to use the left hand more efficiently.

Occupational therapists are trained to make splints to prevent further injury or to correct a deformity caused by injuries or diseases such as arthritis. Specialized treatment of the hand is offered through the care of our occupational therapists.

Because most insurance companies require a doctor's order before a patient can receive occupational therapy, individuals are accepted by physician referral only. Upon referral, an occupational therapist will evaluate the individual. When therapy is appropriate, a personal treatment plan will be developed.

Speech Therapy

For people with learning disabilities, strokes, dementia, hearing loss or other illnesses, communication can be very difficult. If you need assistance with speaking, thinking or swallowing, our speech therapists can help.

• Speech-language pathologists at Select Therapies can:
• Evaluate and provide treatment for communication problems to help you regain listening, reading, speaking and writing skills
• Perform swallowing studies and retrain people who suffer from swallowing difficulties
• Provide voice therapy to persons with voice disorders caused by nodules as a result of overuse or misuse of the vocal chords
• Improve cognitive functioning

Transitional Living Program

The transitional living program is designed to simulate, as closely as possible, a scenario for the patient to experience the level of assistance and independence needed to be successful in their home environment. In many ways the transitional living program turns our private rooms into “efficiency” apartments.

The purpose is to verify that a Homeward Bound patient is able to function at the level identified by the Eagle Point interdisciplinary team upon discharge. All functional needs such as medication administration skills, toileting, meal preparation and daily living tasks are tested. The patient and care giver will be allowed to stay together and experience a simulation of the level of care and support needed upon discharge from the facility. The simulation will prevent early discharge and unsuccessful transitions by allowing the patient and their primary caregiver a true idea of the assistance needed for independent living, but in a safe and controlled environment.

Modalities

Eagle Point Nursing & Rehab Center contracts to provide state of the art, advanced modality equipment that helps our therapists get patients better faster. Many patients who have not been responsive to standard therapies are improving with the use the advanced equipment and treatment methods described below. Therapists have seen patients recover more quickly than they might have with conventional therapies alone. As a result, patients enjoy increased independence and improved quality-of-life.

Electrical Stimulation (E-Stim) can be used for pain management, increased blood flow, spasticity management and muscle re-education.

Ultrasound treatments generate deep heating, facilitate the relaxation of contractures and accelerate the healing of soft tissue. It can be used in thermal or non-thermal mode.

Shortwave diathermy uses radio waves to increase the extensibility of Collagen Tissue, reduce inflammation and increase local blood flow.

Neuroprobe 500 uses infrared and near infrared light to treat neuropathy and pain issues in different areas of the body.

Modalities are used to treat many persistent healthcare problems, including:

• Complex Wounds
• Edema
• Chronic Pain
• Contractures
• Incontinence
• Muscle Re-education
• Peripheral Neuropathy

Wound Care

Successful treatment and management of wounds is a creative and dynamic process requiring the comprehensive teamwork of health care professionals working together to provide individualized patient services using state-of-the-art knowledge and tools.

It is vital that a transdisciplinary approach be developed and fostered in order to achieve success. The essential elements of a skin care program are education, motivation, and follow up. The reinforcement of the basic principles of prevention and therapy are important to the success of the program. Those involved need to know that they are all essential caregivers in the treatment process. These include the patient, family, social worker, nurses, nurse's aides, dietary staff, primary physician, and wound care nurse consultant and therapy staff. In this way, for example, the nurse assisting the patient with skin care may utilize the physical therapist's input and recommendations on debridement, dressing selection, modality use for associated conditions, and positioning.

In addition, guidelines for mobility and strengthening with patients and the occupational therapist's counsel on positioning and splinting can be integrated. The patient receives reinforcement for all therapies in each session. Each discipline, being accountable for the whole of the patient, functions from the same reference point attending to the discharge options, the presence or absence of resources, the patient's past style of coping, and the patient's personal goals, as well as the finite and measurable physical milestones.

The transdisciplinary approach to skin care translates to improved patient outcomes and quality-of-life. There may be shortened healing times for wounds, significant reduction in the incidence of pressure ulcer development, and reduced costs for treatment. All occur as a result of shared goals and philosophy. These outcomes allow individuals typically confined due to areas of impaired skin integrity to re-enter the community or lessen the required level of care.

Pain Management

The definition of pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience and is the most common reason individuals seek medical attention. Pain is recognized as a complex phenomenon derived from sensory stimuli and interpreted by the individual. The most accurate evidence of pain and its intensity is the patient's self report. Examples of the prevalence of pain in Long Term Care are:

• Pain is twice as prevalent in the elderly as in younger individuals (Crook et al, 1984)
• Community dwelling elders prevalence ranges from 25-50% (Mobility et al, 1994)
  In Long Term Care settings prevalence can be as high as 85% (Stein et al, 1996)
• The prevalence of pain in the nursing home is 45-80% with analgesics being used by 40-50% of the residents (Gloth, JAGS 2001)

Examples of why elders are less likely to complain of pain include:

• Attitude that pain is a normal part of aging
• Fear Factor
  • Fearful of the meaning of pain-possible terminal illness
  • Fearful of the pain treatment-tests, surgery, drug side effects
  • Fearful of making a nuisance of themselves

At Eagle Point Nursing & Rehab. Center, we utilize our modalities to address pain associated with many medical conditions, some of which include: osteoarthritis, diabetic neuropathy, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, scar tissue, back and neck pain. The goal of treatment is to reduce activities of daily living and long term analgesic drug use and its addiction and harmful side effects.

Fall Recovery & Fall Prevention

Falls are a huge problem in the elderly population. 90% of the 250,000 falls by the elderly each year result in a hip fracture. Here is a percentage of elderly (over 65 years old) who experience one or more falls each year:

• 25-35% of community dwelling elderly
• 33-67% of hospitalized elderly
• 60-66% of institutionalized elderly

At Eagle Point Nursing & Rehab. Center we can help an individual return back to their home environment safely after a fall. Our nursing and therapy teams not only work closely with the primary and orthopaedic physician on weight bearing issues and proper day to day care with therapy, but also with the patient's family with a home evaluation and suggestions to make the home safer before discharge back home.

We can also assist our long term residents with improving their ability to move about their room and transferring in and out of bed, their recliner, their wheelchair and toileting. This improves their quality of life.

In addition to physical and occupational therapy, we improve muscle weakness by utilizing an electrotherapy system to accelerate muscle re-education for ambulation. The electrotherapy system duplicates normal correct movement patterns such as walking or cycling. The system is used with active cycling to promote accelerated recovery of ambulation and strengthen muscles.

Pulmonary Disease

COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) is one of the fastest growing diseases our country faces today. Between 1985-1995 the number of annual COPD physician visits increased from 9.3 million to 16 million (a 172% increase).

The majority of COPD patients experience disabling symptoms:

• 72% can not climb a flight of stairs
• 58% experience anxiety
• 44% can not complete ADL's
• 34% are unable to work
• 28% have dyspnea even at rest

Our program is an individually tailored, multidisciplinary program that involves stabilizing the pathology of the disease and assists our residents in restoring their functional abilities faster. Our therapist's utilize this to help patient's reach goals including preventing disease progression, relief of medical symptoms, decreasing disability, increasing functional status, improving exercise capacity, improving health status & quality of life, reducing exacerbations and attempting to return the patient to the highest possible functional level. Our program incorporates:

• Exercise performance testing
• Functional testing
• Dyspnea management
• Energy conservation
• Medication compliance
• Healthcare resource utilization
• Diagnostic testing
• Education & training
• Therapeutic exercise
• Bronchial hygiene
• Activities of daily living
• Outcome assessment