Your clinical care team

Defining the clinicians who are part of our care team

Just as all patients are unique, so are goals and the therapy they receive to reach them. At Encompass Health, our clinicians and support staff make up a highly-trained team that is committed to helping patients achieve exceptional outcomes—but how exactly does the skill of a care team support a high acuity patient’s recovery and safe return home?

Our interdisciplinary approach combines expert clinicians, a hospital level of care and physical, occupational and speech therapies. This allows us to provide medically complex patients the care they need as they take the next steps in their recovery.

Physicians

Visits with the network of independent physicians available to patients while at an Encompass Health hospital are more than getting to see a doctor. Patients have access to specialists who are credentialed by our hospitals, including physiatrists, neurologists, orthopedists, pulmonologists, cardiologist, neuro-psychologists, hospitalists and physicians.

Physicians are connected to members of the patient care team, working closely and frequently with other clinicians and each patient to stay on top of the case and identify areas that might cause a setback or readmission. They can also help patients to manage pain, so they are able to participate in therapy—and are often able to do so using non-pharmaceutical options.

Families can speak with physicians to learn more about their loved one’s recovery and address questions.

Nursing

While patients are recovering from a medically complex conditions, our rehabilitation nurses are with them every step of the way, day and night.

A key piece in defining our hospital level of care, nurses at Encompass Health are specially trained to care for patients in the inpatient rehabilitation setting. They work with every discipline in the hospital from therapy to dietary or case management and also physicians to ensure that each patient receives the best care to fit their individual needs.

Nurses are experienced in wound care, infection control protocols and respiratory therapy to address the needs of patients with limited to little mobility. Many of our nurses are also Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurses meaning they have obtained additional certification to demonstrate their expertise in the field of rehabilitation.

Case managers

While all clinicians are focused on delivering exceptional patient care, case managers are able to look at the big picture of a patient’s unique plan. They help patients understand the steps to recovery, create goals, determine treatment preferences and set them up for future success.

Therapists

Based on patient’s goals and initial assessments, therapists at Encompass Health rehabilitation hospitals design custom treatment plans.

Our speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists work together to set individualized goals for patients unique to what they want to accomplish and work with patients on that specific need—whether basic self-care such as bathing or eating; mobility such as wheelchair transfers or preparing to stand; or utilizing technology to regain strength or prevent falls.

Therapist work with patients in their room at the bedside and help them progress to therapy while sitting (link to sitting page, no new window) to standing.