Helping to mPower
Clinic keeps acute physical rehabilitation close to home

Photos by Esther K. Smith
Janell Wyatt, rehab physical therapist at mPower Rehabilitation Center, and Florence Sheldon, hospital volunteer, demonstrate one of the exercises in the rehab program. Patients are put through their paces while enjoying a wide view of the Columbia River.

Sharla Weber, community education manager, shows how patients can practice using the mock ATM, one of the features of the occupational therapy room. The home-like room also has a place for patients to entertain family and friends during their stay.

By ESTHER K. SMITH
News staff writer
March 4, 2006

If the name throws you at first, try saying it out loud: “m-Power.” Empower.

The goal of Mid-Columbia Medical Center’s new mPower Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Program is to empower patients to maximize their quality of life after an illness or injury.

Patients who have serious or acute chronic disabilities such as those resulting from stroke, brain or spinal chord injury or other neurological disorders; amputations, major medical trauma, congenital deformities, burns, or other illness or injury no longer have to travel to Portland or Bend to receive intense hospital-based therapy.

MCMC has transformed part of its third floor into a home-like, 8-bed acute rehabilitation unit, where a team of health professionals work together to help the patient achieve the most independent level of function that they can, with the primary goal of returning them to their previous living situations.

Depending on the needs of the individual patient, that team may include a medical director, rehabilitation nurses and patient care associates, physical and occupational therapists, a speech-language pathologist, social worker, recreational therapist, psychologist, and case manager.

“You realize that it affects so many different areas of your life,” says Sharla Weber, mPower community education manager. “Not just the physical part of you, but the emotional; it affects your relationships, your family, your economics, and all of that, so we try to direct the whole patient.”

The facilities include a room for physical therapy, where the focus is on strength and mobility, and a kitchen/dining room/living area, where occupational therapy focuses on everyday activities like preparing meals and maneuvering with a wheelchair or walking aid.

On average, a program will last about two weeks, but it depends on the individual patient’s need.

“Somebody who’s had, let’s say, a joint replacement that goes really well — he may be out of here in a week,” says Cindy Godfrey, program director, “versus someone who’s had a severe stroke, who would need to be here three or four weeks.”

Patients are referred to mPower after a hospital stay or from skilled nursing facilities when they meet the admissions criteria and can benefit from the program, and staff members will do home visits to assess whether a person meets those criteria.

The program involves a minimum of three hours of therapy per day, five days a week. There are also outings planned every week to practice “community re-entry,” Godfrey says.

“It may be as simple as something like going down to the gift shop and making a simulated purchase or going down to the cafeteria to order milk and sitting there in a social setting, or we may take them to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, so they can see what it’s like to be out in the community in their walker, or in their wheelchair.

“That’s our ultimate goal: We don’t just want them back home, we want them to be active members of the community again,” Godfrey says. “That’s truly a sign of our success.”

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Mid-Columbia Medical Center will hold an open house in its new mPower Center March 16 from 3-6 p.m. There will also be a Seating and Mobility Clinic from 3-5 p.m. The Center is located on the third floor of the hospital, 1700 E. 19th St., The Dalles. For more information call (541) 506-6903.