The Brooks Rehabilitation hospital opened April 19 in Bartram Park. (Photos provided by Brooks Rehabilitation)
The new hospital is part of a 115-acre Brooks campus in Bartram Park.
The $54 million hospital took 16 months to construct.
Artwork inside the new hospital.
Perry-McCall Construction Inc. built the hospital.
The gait training hallway.
The hospital and its ambulances.
An outdoor patio at the hospital.
A patient room.
The therapy courtyard.
The therapy courtyard.
The therapy gym.
Employees gather for a group photo on April 19, the hospital's first day. The facility has 85 employees now but will have 160 total.
The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new hospital.
Three years ago, Bob Kuhn could hardly move. Regular Cyberdyne Hybrid Assistive Limb therapy has made it so he can walk again. Here, he is assisted by physical therapist Saige Frazier. (Photo by Dan Macdonald)
Brooks Rehabilitation opened its second Jacksonville facility April 19 in Bartram Park.
The 60-bed hospital at 6400 Brooks Bartram Drive is part of the 115-acre campus that also includes a 100-bed skilled nursing facility, a 61-unit assisted living facility and two 12-bed Green House Residences memory care homes.
Brooks Rehabilitation cares for those who have had strokes, brain injuries, orthopedic surgery, transplants, spinal cord injuries or a disabling illness.
“This new hospital will allow us to expand access to even more patients in need of our specialized services,” Brooks Rehabilitation President and CEO Doug Baer said in a news release.
The Bartram facility admitted its first patient April 19 and expects to add two patients a day through the month and be at capacity by the end of the year, said Bryan Murphy, the hospital’s vice president of operations.
“We have 85 employees now but will have 160 total,” he said.
The $54 million hospital took 16 months to construct. During the design phase, a committee comprising physicians, therapists, nurses, case managers and the Brooks Projects team offered input on the interior design.
The committee suggested ways to provide nurses with workstations that do not block hallways, yet afford them access to patients. They even made suggestions about where to place electrical outlets.
The single-patient rooms are larger to better accommodate wheelchairs and other rehabilitation equipment. Some rooms are built for heavier patients and are fitted with a lift and ceiling track that connects to the bathroom for safety.
There are two therapy gyms as well as an outdoor therapy courtyard that help patients practice walking on inclines and terrains that they may encounter at home. The Activities of Daily Living Suite has a clothes washer and dryer as well as a full kitchen where patients relearn household chores.
“Our therapists are rather clever. They will put all of the ingredients on the counter and tell the patient to make them a cake,” Murphy said.
The cupboards are stocked with household items the patient needs to reach and put away in daily life.
“This is why I fell in love with rehab. It’s nice to get to see the patients improve,” Murphy said.
The hospital also has the only Cyberdyne Hybrid Assistive Limb ( HAL) machine in the United States. The robotic device can respond to a patient’s thoughts to move a limb. In time, once-paralyzed patients can learn to walk.
Brooks patient Bob Kuhn suffers from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a neurological condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s peripheral nervous system.
Kuhn has been working with therapists on the HAL for three years and at this year’s Gate River Run he walked in the Brooks Challenge Mile.
“In the early days, the robot did all of the work. It was holding me up. Now I don’t need it for body support,” Kuhn said.
The Brooks Rehabilitation hospital on University Boulevard is a 160-bed facility that treats more than 3,000 patients annually.
Brooks also manages a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in partnership with Halifax Health in Daytona Beach.
