– Memorial Medical Center has once again received a rare fivefold accreditation for its rehabilitation services from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).
Memorial is the only healthcare organization in Illinois – and one of less than 50 in the nation – to receive full, three-year accreditations for these five distinct program areas for rehabilitation services: comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation (adults, children and adolescents), brain injury inpatient rehabilitation (adults, children and adolescents), spinal cord system of care (adults), stroke inpatient specialty (adults) and interdisciplinary outpatient medical rehabilitation (adults, children and adolescents).
“Our entire rehabilitation team is dedicated to the goal of helping people home, and this recognition is a reflection of our staff’s commitment,” said Teresa Reiser, director of rehabilitation services at Memorial Medical Center and a physical therapist.
Memorial Rehab Services seeks to improve the functional living skills of people recovering from disabling medical illness or injury through intensive treatment from an interdisciplinary team.
“We help our patients overcome barriers to safely return home and to foster successful return to productive daily activities,” Reiser said.
Members of the interdisciplinary teams include physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychologists, therapeutic recreational specialists, dietitians, pharmacists, social workers and chaplains, who develop evidence-based plans of care unique to each patient.
“This designation ensures that our patients will receive extraordinary care from a multidisciplinary team that uses evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to provide the highest quality of care,” said Evan Davis, administrator of orthopedics and neurosciences at Memorial Medical Center. “Our goal is to provide the very best in rehabilitation care, and this accreditation outcome from CARF is validation that we are succeeding.”
A six-member survey team spent two days in late April conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the rehabilitation services offered at Memorial Medical Center and the hospital’s Koke Mill Medical Center at 3132 Old Jacksonville Road and SportsCare of Illinois at 4550 W. Iles Ave. in Springfield.
Memorial Rehab Services also provides care at Menard Medical Center, 1 Centre Drive, Petersburg; and Memorial Industrial Rehabilitation, 775 Engineering Drive, Springfield.
Memorial first achieved CARF accreditation in April 1980 for its hospital-based Physical Restoration Program. Successful re-accreditation surveys have followed every three years with additional program recognitions in 1986 for Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation, 1992 for Brain Injury Program and Spinal Cord System of Care programs, and in 2007 for Stroke Specialty and Outpatient Medical Management. In 2007, 2010 and 2013, Memorial Medical Center earned three-year CARF accreditations for all five service areas.
Founded in 1966, CARF is an independent, nonprofit organization that accredits programs and services in behavioral health and medical rehabilitation, among other clinical programs, throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.