TOWN AND COUNTRY — Patients ready to be discharged from the hospital but not quite well enough to return home may sometimes wait for an available room at a rehabilitation facility. That means they are not only holding up a hospital bed for someone who might need it, but also not getting the intensive therapy they need.
The opening this month of a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation facility, The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis-West County, hopes to alleviate any wait.
The owners are scheduled Thursday to celebrate the grand opening of the building, located near the corner of Town and Country Crossing Drive and Woods Mill Road in Town and Country.
The $40 million rehabilitation facility is the fourth in the St. Louis region operated by The Rehabilitation Institute, a partnership between Alabama-based Encompass Health and BJC HealthCare.
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The institute’s other facilities are located in St. Louis, St. Peters and Shiloh.
“It’s an area where we found there is need. We know people like to be close to home and their support systems as they’re receiving this type of care, so we are looking forward to serving this community,” said Shivani Bass, CEO of the West County and St. Peters locations.
As part of the plan, BJC HealthCare will close its 20-bed rehabilitation unit inside Missouri Baptist Medical Center, located about five miles east, and move patients to the new facility next week.
The move frees up much-needed space for single rooms for acute patients inside Missouri Baptist while also providing rehabilitation patients updated state-of-the-art care at a more spacious facility, according to the Certificate of Need filed with Missouri health department.
The Certificate of Need shows the facility will help care for the aging population, especially in the areas of south St. Louis County, where figures showed an additional 29 rehabilitation beds were needed.
“We are thrilled to make these services available beyond the hospital setting so even more members of our community can access extraordinary care,” said Joan Magruder, group president of BJC HealthCare, said in a press release.
Rehabilitation hospitals help patients recovering from issues such as strokes, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and other complex orthopedic conditions get stronger so they can be more independent when they return home.
At The Rehabilitation Institute facilities, patients receive a minimum of three hours of intensive therapy five days a week, physician visits and 24-hour nursing care, officials said.
In addition to 40 private patient rooms, the new 47,000-square foot West County facility will house a therapy gym with high-tech equipment, courtyard with different surfaces to practice navigating, a dining room and other activity areas — all on one floor.
“We have designed the hospital to accommodate all of their needs as they regain strength, function, hope and independence,” said Troy DeDecker, vice president of Encompass Health’s Central region. “The hospital’s one-story building design provides patients with greater accessibility as they are transferred to different treatment and non-treatment areas of the hospital, and more convenient access for families and visitors.”
On average, patients stay an average of 12 to 14 days at the rehabilitation institute, officials said.
BJC and Encompass Health — the nation’s largest owner and operator of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, with about 150 in 35 states — have been partners in providing rehabilitation services in the St. Louis area for more than 20 years.
Their 96-bed St. Louis facility on Duncan Avenue was the first free-standing rehabilitation hospital in the metropolitan area when it opened in 2001 and is the area’s largest.
This latest facility will add 20 inpatient rehabilitation beds to the 490 currently available in a dozen facilities across the city of St. Louis and St. Louis and St. Charles counties, according to the latest figures maintained by the Missouri health department.
Officials said the new facility will open with 130 employees, 80 who are full-time, with plans to expand to 110 full-time employees in five years.