Baycrest Health Sciences & Baycrest Foundation Publications
Issue link: http://baycrest.uberflip.com/i/141183
2x Population of seniors in Ontario expected to double in next 20 years. New rehab progRam provides a specialized approach for frail seniors seniors, enabling them to return home or to another residential setting. At the system level, the unit helps to reduce visits to hospital emergency departments and unnecessary early admission to long-term care. Baycrest recently opened the Charlotte and Lewis Steinberg Slow Stream Rehabilitation Unit. The 30-bed unit combines low intensity therapy with a longer stay (on average 90 days) for rehabilitating patients who have suffered an acute illness, such as a stroke or a heart attack. The slow stream program helps fill the gap in services for a frail and elderly population that can't be treated through traditional rehabilitation. A team of interprofessional health-care providers delivers patient-centred rehabilitation to improve the physiological, physical and cognitive health of these patients. With the population of seniors in Ontario expected to double in the next 20 years, the Ontario Ministry of Health and LongTerm Care requested that Baycrest develop slow stream rehabilitation because it recognizes our unique expertise in delivering highly specialized geriatric care. Gently paced to maximize success, the program offers the best chance of recovery for frail Both the slow stream and high tolerance units (the latter is higher intensity, shorter stay) are located on the same floor of the hospital and form the integrated Baycrest Rehabilitation Program. The goal is to create a streamlined, seamless program for patients, focused on rehabilitation care, education and research. Critical to the overall program's strength are our outpatient services, which continue to support patients after they leave the hospital. The program is also being structured to test emerging strategies in cognitive neurorehabilitation based on research. "The entire rehabilitation program is a base for exceptional care, clinical research and teaching," said Dr. William Reichman, president and chief executive officer of Baycrest. "It will serve to foster the development of innovative rehabilitation strategies for medically and cognitively frail seniors who are in need of highly specialized approaches to care." 2010/11 Baycrest and Baycrest Foundation Annual Report 11