Piedmont, Encompass Health’s rehabilitation hospital will soon open for Columbus patients

Suppose someone is driving down Veterans Parkway, and they get hit by a another vehicle. All of a sudden they may be severely injured and eventually need rehabilitation.

In the past, they had three options.

The first would be to try to a bed at Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside Campus, Kendra Sermarini, CEO of the Rehabilitation Hospital, told the L-E. But this option often is full, and with a waiting list.

Some patients might try to utilize home health services or try sub-acute rehabilitation often associated with nursing homes. This would be short-term, Sermarini said, and the amount of therapy on any given day is less than inpatient rehab.

But starting September 12, medically complex patients in need of inpatient rehabilitation can access Piedmont and Encompass Health’s new inpatient rehabilitation hospital on Veterans Parkway

“(An accident) could happen at any age,” said Laura Drew, the chief operating officer of Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside Campus. “And we don’t think about that.”

The Rehabilitation Hospital of Columbus will help patients recovering from strokes, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions regain function and independence.

“There is such a need for post-acute care rehabilitation in this community,” Sermarini said. “Patients goto acute care hospitals, and they’re stabilized. But a lot of times, once they’re stabilized, they need more rehab and more therapy before they can go home.”

Treatment at the Rehabilitation Hospital will utilize an interdisciplinary approach, she said. Patients at the hospital will participate in three hours of therapy, five days a week. This may include physical, occupational and speech therapy.

However, patients who only need therapy will not qualify to be in the Rehabilitation Hospital, Sermarini said, because the hospital will focus on patients who are medically complex on top of their rehabilitation needs. Patients will have dieticians, dialysis nurses, case managers, 24-hour nursing care and physician oversight.

“(It’s) really the entire spectrum to help provide that interdisciplinary approach to care to get patients back home to their home environment,” Sermarini said.

Inside the new hospital

The estimated total capital investment of the hospital, which broke ground just over a year ago, is around $40 million, said Brian Sillitto, executive vice president of the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce Economic Development.

It is expected to employ around 100 people, he said, with an average salary of $65,000 a year.

“That is a ripple effect throughout the economy,” Sillitto said. “And that’s why you see a lot of the growth that’s happening in this area, which is going to be supported by major employers like Piedmont and Encompass.”

The building itself features state of the art technology that will better help patients in their rehabilitation, Drew said, including tracks in the therapy gym and patients’ rooms that help with mobility.

Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside Campus relocated 29 beds to the rehabilitation hospital, and the state provided an additional 11 beds bringing the total number of private patient rooms in the hospital to 40.

A few of the rooms are designated as isolation rooms that can be used if someone has an infectious disease, said an Encompass Health representative. The isolation rooms are also designed to help with bariatric patients if needed, the representative said.

The hospital has a dining room, in-house pharmacy, dayroom areas and a therapy courtyard with steps and ramps that are commonly found when walking outside and into buildings.

There is also an “activities of daily living suite” equipped with a washer and dryer, stove, bathroom and other typical appliances found in homes.

“Patients that are on the fence about whether or not they feel safe to return home on their own can practice those things in a safe and controlled environment,” Sermarini said. “They can feel confident in their skills. Or their families can feel confident in their skills when they’re taking them back.”

More hospital space for a growing community

Now that the 29 beds from the Northside Campus have been relocated, Drew said, the space on the third floor is going to be converted to a medical surgical unit.

The second floor of the Northside Campus will be primarily medical patients with a combination of overflow surgical patients, she said.

“We have been working on growth strategy at the Northside Campus ever since we opened up our first emergency room in 2018,” Drew said. “We’ve quickly outgrown bed capacity. Surgical volumes exploded on the Northside Campus.”

Conversations about a partnership with Encompass Health to build a rehabilitation hospital in Columbus began in 2018, Hill said. As a result of the conversations Piedmont now has a system-wide joint venture with Encompass.

It was important that the 40-bed hospital be located in North Columbus because it is located in a fast-growing area of town where a lot of people are moving, Sermarini said, which makes it convenient.

“We’ve known that we want to grow Piedmont Northside into this community hospital for North Columbus and Harris County,” said Scott Hill, CEO of Piedmont Columbus Regional. “And this growth is hard, but good.”

By 2030 one in every five U.S. citizens will be age 65 or older, said Brad Kennedy, regional president for Encompass Health. This fact increases the need for more access to quality health care, he said, and the new hospital will help to meet this need.

“I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to come to this facility with all the latest technology that’s here,” Drew said. “It’s remarkable.”