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Good Shepherd Penn Partners Opens New Facility
On July 1, the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) officially opens its new campus - Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse, located at 18th and Lombard Streets in Center City Philadelphia. The Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse campus features a newly renovated 58-bed physical rehabilitation facility managed by Good Shepherd Penn Partners as well as a 38-bed long-term acute care hospital (LTACH).
Good Shepherd Penn Partners (GSPP) is a joint venture between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network in Allentown and the University of Pennsylvania Health System. This partnership, established in January 2007, combines the expertise of two national leaders in rehabilitation care. Together the partnership funded a $30 million refurbishment of the former Graduate Hospital. This building and the Tuttleman Center constitute the Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse campus. Good Shepherd Penn Partners operates three of the six floors in the main building.
With the establishment of this joint venture with Good Shepherd and the new location, UPHS patients now have access to one of the largest, most comprehensive post-acute rehabilitation networks in eastern Pennsylvania. Post-acute care is defined as care provided after discharge from an acute-care hospital, including or similar to any of Penn’s three hospitals— the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
“The fusion of the two organizations’ intellectual and clinical strengths will allow Good Shepherd Penn Partners to offer excellent comprehensive rehabilitation and long-term care, returning a larger number of people to their highest potential of functional independence as quickly as possible,” says Sally Gammon, FACHE, president and CEO, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network, and chair, Good Shepherd Penn Partners Board of Trustees.
Patients who receive care at any Penn hospital benefit from continuing all of their post-acute care rehabilitation treatment within the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
“This is important to patients because it allows the post-acute care medical team immediate and direct access to the treating physicians and patient records. Additionally, it alleviates the burden of transferring from a hospital system to a separate post-acute care facility, making for a more seamless and stress-free transition to independence,” says Ralph W. Muller, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Services at GSPP
The two major services offered by Good Shepherd Penn Partners on the Rittenhouse campus are provided by the long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) and the inpatient rehabilitation facility. Patients with injuries, illnesses or surgeries that limit their physical abilities receive customized care tailored to their needs through every step of recovery.
Long-term acute care hospitals (known as LTACHs) provide specialized acute care to medically complex patients. Good Shepherd Penn Partners’ 38-bed LTACH, the Good Shepherd Penn Partners Specialty Hospital at Rittenhouse, is wholly owned by the joint venture between UPHS and Good Shepherd and brings together the best of both organizations.
This specialty hospital is designed for patients who require long-term acute care. LTACHs are different from typical acute-care hospitals because they are equipped to care for patients for an extended period of time. Patients who require care from an LTACH are too sick to return to their homes or to a nursing home after they are discharged from the hospital, and are too fragile to maintain a strict inpatient rehabilitation schedule. LTACH patients spend an average of 25 days in the hospital as opposed to acute-care patients who spend an average of four to five days. Often these patients have other medical conditions that require constant monitoring, which can delay recovery. One example is a patient who experienced a traumatic brain injury but also has severe cardiac complications.
In addition to the LTACH, Good Shepherd Penn Partners also manages a 58-bed inpatient rehabilitation facility licensed to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine is also located in the main building on the Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse campus. The Penn Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine was designed to replace the inpatient rehabilitation units at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hospital, and treats patients suffering from stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation and multi-trauma injury. These patients are also too fragile to return home after they are discharged from the hospital, but are stable enough to receive three hours of inpatient rehabilitation a day.
For patients who require rehabilitation on an outpatient basis, Good Shepherd Penn Partners also operates eight outpatient rehabilitation facilities throughout the greater Philadelphia area. These facilities, previously Penn Therapy and Fitness, now operate under the name of GSPP Penn Therapy and Fitness. Additional services are offered, but patients currently receiving treatment at any Penn Therapy and Fitness location will not experience any changes in the standard or manner in which their care is provided. Additionally, GSPP Penn Therapy and Fitness provides physical, speech and occupational therapy within the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s three hospitals.
The GSPP Team
The physicians and staff of Good Shepherd Penn Partners provide outstanding care to patients at all levels of need. This care is grounded in excellent clinical research and expertise, as well as real time best practices. Good Shepherd Penn Partners is dedicated to helping each patient become as independent as possible and has created a new standard for physical rehabilitation for the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Philadelphia region.
Good Shepherd Penn Partners and its board of directors have created the vision “Partnering to realize life’s potential.” “It’s no coincidence that partnering is the cornerstone of our vision,” said Michael Soisson, executive director of GSPP. “It’s not just the partnership between Penn and Good Shepherd, but the partnerships we have with our patients, our families and our physicians. And ‘realizing life’s potential’ is about helping patients be as independent as possible.”
For more information, please visit Good Shepherd Penn Partners or call 877-9MY-REHAB (877-969-7342).
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