New rehabilitation hospital expands local capacity for inpatient therapy
Apr. 18—Kern County residents in need of intensive therapy following an accident or serious medical procedure got a new treatment option with the recent opening of the 50-bed Bakersfield Rehabilitation Hospital off Highway 178 near Morning Drive.
Since receiving its first patients last month, the two-story, 60,000-square-foot facility has achieved certification by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and, separately, the California Department of Public Health. The facility qualifies for Medicare reimbursement and contracts with private insurers are in the works.
The hospital's opening after a yearslong construction process expands Bakersfield's room capacity for dedicated inpatient rehabilitation services by 58 percent. Patients typically stay for up to two weeks, though longer terms are possible, depending on their medical need.
With a mandated staffing ratio of no more than five patients for every one registered nurse, Bakersfield Rehabilitation Hospital is like a skilled nursing facility in some ways. The biggest difference is that it ensures its patients get at least three hours per day of therapy, which comes in a variety of forms.
The brand-new building has an expansive therapy room with a large touch-screen monitor that takes patients through a series of exercises intended to improve their cognition skills, memory and focus. Also in the room are exercise machines and simulated environments, such as a mock kitchen, bath, laundry room and automobile, that allow therapists to put patients through tailored lessons and assessments.
There's even a normal-looking bed that head therapist Alma Rolle uses to take patients through the routine of getting up in the morning.
"Here we make sure they're able to get in and out of their bed, just like a regular day," Rolle said.
For years, the only local option for such patients was the 86-bed Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Bakersfield, on Commerce Drive; the next closest facility of its kind is in Visalia. An opportunity for more beds in Kern arose with a partnership between a group of Bakersfield-area physicians and Fresno health care developer G.L. Bruno Associates Inc.
They ended up selling land for the hospital to a real estate investment group, Alabama-based Medical Properties Trust Inc., which leases the hospital to Pennsylvania-based Ernest Health. The facility is managed by an affiliate of Vibra Healthcare LLC, also based in Pennsylvania. Together Ernest and Vibra operate 60 facilities nationwide, some of them rehabilitation hospitals but also outpatient facilities, critical-care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.
Director of Business Development Nikki Sherrell took visitors Monday through a tour of BRH patient rooms, all of them private, including negative-pressure rooms with an anteroom for family members to visit very ill patients or those with highly communicable diseases such as COVID-19. She showed off the kitchen, outdoor therapy area and beds specially built for bariatric patients weighing many hundreds of pounds.
Sherrell said the facility is fit to rehabilitate patients who have suffered from a stroke, hip fracture, COVID-19, brain injury, even amputation.
"Our goal is to get the patients back to their prior level of function," she said.
The results have been fantastic, CEO Randy Dodd said. Some people who come in on a wheelchair go out walking, he said, adding, "This is the kind of business you just see miracles."
"We're anxious to see what we can add value to in this market," Dodd said.
The hospital's very first patient, Juanita Gallagher, who at age 88 recently got a knee replacement at Mercy Southwest, said she was unable to get into the Encompass facility in Bakersfield. She was relieved to be referred by her physician to BRH, which she said devoted a team of four therapists who "worked on me continuously."
"Everybody's just wonderful there," she said, "the nurses, even to the kitchen help. They're really helpful."
