Tower Hill Healthcare debuts therapy suite

1. Imee Cordero, Tower Hill Rehabilitation Director, smiles during the facility's party May 14 to introduce its expanded rehab suite to the community.

Updated: July 2, 2012 9:26AM

Stepping from a carpeted room to one with a hard surface might seem like an automatic move. But for someone with a physical limitation, that task can be daunting. Last week, Tower Hill Healthcare Center in South Elgin introduced its new rehabilitation therapy suite, which simulates an actual home environment so clients can practice daily living activities and settings. More than 50 local health care professional and Tower Hill staff members attended.

“We have state-of-the-art equipment now, and we give them something that will enable them to go home quickly,” said Jeremy Amster, Tower Hill’s administrator. “We re-did the entire therapy suite to give the utmost care not just for our long-term care residents but also our short-term care rehab clients.”

With rehabilitation equipment on one side of the suite, and a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom on the other side, clients are literally within sight of their goals. In addition to working through various strengthening exercises with the machines, the residents and clients also spend time in the simulated home areas.

“This is the gestational unit,” said rehabilitation director Imee Cordero. “We can ask our patients to practice moving around the kitchen, and they can do their toilet and tub transfers .... It simulates a real home.”

Amster said about 50 residents at Tower Hill are working with the rehabilitation therapists. Cordero explained most have six to seven sessions per week, with a minimum of one hour per day. The May 14 event gave health care professionals in the community a chance to see what the new facility can offer patients, Cordero said.

“Now they know what we’ve done, so they can be comfortable referring patients here,” she added. “We’ve always had a therapy room, but it was not this extensive.”

The renovated environment adds to the therapeutic experience, according to Tower Hill community relations director Pam Hilderbrand.

“Patients’ families were already confident with the therapists, but of course the beautiful new surroundings make it even more enjoyable,” she said. The project took about one year, Hilderbrand noted. The facility serves not only in-house residents with long-term care needs but also people with shorter-care requirements. Patients who have been admitted for three or more nights in a hospital are eligible to use their Medicare for a skilled facility, and Tower Hill is one of those, she said.

Cordero demonstrated that the kitchen and bedroom components of the new suite give patients practical opportunities to prepare for daily living.

“With therapy and the new equipment, they can go home much quicker than before,” she said.

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