Rehabilitation Services At Scottish Rite
Children’s Medical Center, Atlanta
Renee
Kopkowski
Publications Manager, Scottish
Rite Children’s Medical Center
1001 Johnson Ferry Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30342–1600
There are two ways to look at any situation. Rehabilitation services at Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia are no different. You can see the patients enrolled in any of the programs as victims, examples of tragedies caused by car accidents, illnesses, injuries, or genetic disorders. Or you can see the hope and promise in their eyes. The second way is what Scottish Rite’s family-centered care philosophy is all about.
The friends and families of the patients treated in Scottish Rite’s Rehabilitation program last year see only the hope. They have children who are living proof that lives are rebuilt at Scottish Rite. That’s because 100 percent of the children and adolescents treated at Scottish Rite go back to school, whether on a regular basis or modified schedule. And these children increase their functional abilities tremendously, making life less of a battle and more enjoyable.
Most of these children arrive at Scottish Rite in the worst situations imaginable. Many are in comas, unable to walk, talk, or eat. Sometimes, they can’t even breathe without assistance. Others have had limbs amputated. Their plight may seem desperate at first, but after therapy with skilled pediatric experts and hard work on their part, many of these children emerge as strong people who have the best of life ahead of them.
Children and adolescents who come to Scottish Rite after an injury or illness that takes away their physical abilities often start their treatment in Scottish Rite’s Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (CIRU). It’s here these children begin their road to recovery. Each room on the 23-bed unit is private and includes a sofa that opens into a bed so parents can stay with their children, as well as a private bathroom, TV, and phone.
The average length of stay for patients in this unit is 28.7 days. They live here and participate in full schedules of physical, occupational, recreational, and speech therapy. They also begin their journey to get back into school by working with teachers in the CIRU.
Scottish Rite’s CIRU is the only pediatric brain injury program based in a children’s hospital in the Southeast accredited by Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). And last year, CARF reaccredited Scottish Rite’s program with a three-year accreditation in comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation with specialty accreditation in brain injury pediatrics and community integrative rehabilitation. The program is so well known and respected that 40 percent of its patients come from out of state. Scottish Rite has also been recognized as having above-average outcomes in the treatment of pediatric brain injury when compared to similar programs in a national database.
While these facts are exceptional, they mean one thing to parents and their children at Scottish Rite: there’s a chance of regaining control of their lives. Those chances increase as children progress through Scottish Rite’s Rehabilitation program.
After their stay in CIRU, many patients move on to Scottish Rite’s Day Rehabilitation program. In Day Rehabilitation, they fine-tune the skills they’ve gained through their hard work as inpatients. Here, children and adolescents treat rehabilitation like a day at school.
They live at home and spend six hours a day, five days a week at Scottish Rite completing physical, occupational, recreational, and speech therapy. And, it’s here that they truly focus on returning to school, often with their regular class.
"The focus on return-to-school is the most outstanding feature of the Day Rehabilitation program," said Michael Johnston, M.D., Scottish Rite’s Rehabilitation medical director. "Our staff are able to evaluate what methods and approaches work best for each child, and this information is passed on to the community school when it’s time for the child to return there."
Scottish Rite also offers a neuro-psychology component in its program. Neuropsychological assessment is generally done when a child has difficulty thinking, problems with learning, uncontrollable emotions, or unusual behaviors. Children with attention deficit disorder, attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder, traumatic brain injury, stroke, seizure disorders, exposure to toxic chemicals, metabolic problems, endocrine problems, developmental problems, or premature birth also require neuro-psychological assessment. The staff members of Neuropyschology assess the behavioral disorders that are often associated with these problems. What’s more, Scottish Rite’s Neuro-psychology program treats these disorders on site through professional counseling and therapy.
In January, CARF awarded Scottish Rite’s Day Rehabilitation program with a three-year accreditation. There are no other CARF-accredited pediatric Day Rehabilitation programs in the southeast, making Scottish Rite’s program even more valuable to the children and families who need these special services.
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The physical therapists at the Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia help young orthotics and prosthetics patients master mobility skills. |
Regardless of this recognition, it’s the patients who truly speak for Scottish Rite. In fact, one Scottish Rite Day Rehabilitation patient and her family felt so strongly about informing people of her recovery and the options available for brain-injured patients they started their own Internet website. The patient, Alicia Krouse, is an 18-year-old who was in a car accident in New York last year. After going through the early stages of rehabilitation in New York, her family moved her to Scottish Rite for Day Rehabilitation. You can learn all about Alicia’s remarkable recovery at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/9556/. Her site also links to many others with valuable information on traumatic brain injuries, including the Medical Center’s website at http://www.scottishritechildrens.org. Alicia’s ambition and drive to educate others is proof positive of how children with brain injuries arrive at Scottish Rite to find they have exciting lives ahead of them. In Alicia’s case, that hope inspired her to tell others.
Making life the best it can be is taken a step farther through Scottish Rite’s Orthotics and Prosthetics program. Children treated in this program have often had amputations or were born with bone or ligament disorders that make it nearly impossible for them to perform basic functions like walking or lifting.
Staff at Atlanta’s Scottish Rite Medical Center perform necessary surgical procedures to correct the problems, make prostheses (artificial limbs) specifically to fit children and adolescents, and perform therapy on an outpatient basis to teach the children how to use their prosthetics to their full ability.
Jeff Herman, Scottish Rite Medical Center’s Rehabilitation service line director, points out "the advantage of partnering with a hospital is that we build close relationships with other disciplines in the hospital. That gives us access to specialists in pediatrics and close control over our quality."
The Orthotics and Prosthetics program also offers a mobile van service that visits Scottish Rite’s satellite clinics in four surrounding counties, bringing services closer to home for many patients.
Whether they receive rehabilitation services at a satellite near their home or through Day Rehabilitation or the CIRU, the children treated at Scottish Rite and their families go on to live full lives.
As these children graduate from high school or get their first job, they consistently say they cannot help but keep Scottish Rite in mind. They are aware that Scottish Rite is known nationally as a facility with top-notch pediatric rehabilitation services. But, to them, national recognition does not matter—Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center is the place that gave them the hope they needed and helped them get back on their feet.