Washington County Health Center
Improves & Expands Therapy Services

AdvantageCare Rehabilitation (AdvantageCare) has been providing contract therapy services to the Washington County Health Center (Center) since 2006. In that time, the Center’s therapy division has realized significant improvements in its patient outcomes and operations. AdvantageCare has combined its expert therapy services with its proprietary case management services to strengthen both the Center’s operations and patients.

Revitalizing Services

The Washington County Health Center is a licensed skilled nursing facility that has been serving the residents of Washington County, Pennsylvania for over thirty years. It provides skilled nursing care, short-term rehabilitation services, residential nursing home care, and care for individuals with special needs.

Although known for providing quality services, the Center was experiencing some challenges in the case management and reimbursement area of its operations, and these challenges were beginning to undermine its overall performance. To combat underperforming finances before patient outcomes were impacted, the Center decided to change therapy service providers and contracted with AdvantageCare.

The Center’s director of therapy services, Mark Froelich, MSPT, attributes much of the facility’s improved financial operations and improved patient outcomes to the close work of AdvantageCare staff with the facility’s case and care management teams. “I started with the Center at the time AdvantageCare came on board. There were a number of changes taking place that were primarily directed toward improving therapy and other services provided to patients. If a facility provides outstanding care and rehabilitation, it has the opportunity to strengthen financially, which is important because this enables the facility to serve more patients and continue to provide ever-improving outcomes.”

Froelich continued, “AdvantageCare has been an essential part of the Center’s re-emergence as a premier facility for physical, occupational and speech therapy services. The Center’s reputation for therapy services in the community has improved. As a result, our facility is nearly full with a high number of patients returning home after therapy. Furthermore we are financially healthy, and looking forward to the opening of our expanded therapy wing.”

In December 2008, an expansion to the Center’s therapy area was announced. Enlarging the therapy wing from its current size of approximately 1,200 square feet to over 3,000 square feet, the project more than doubles the Center’s space for therapy, renovates existing space, and adds new state-of-the-art therapy equipment. Efforts to secure appropriations for the expansion project were aided by Pennsylvania State Senator J. Barry Stout, who was himself a patient at the Center in 2007.

“Our Center’s therapy division has certainly benefited from Senator Stout’s advocacy for its improved space and equipment,” said Diana Irey, Washington County Commissioner. “I think he was so impressed with the Center’s therapy services that he felt that the therapists and patients deserved improved surroundings to match the outstanding services being delivered. It’s safe to say that AdvantageCare’s therapy and management services have been instrumental to the Center’s revitalization. Today it is thriving and financially strong.”

Strengthening Outcomes

According to Froelich, the AdvantageCare team has improved the Center’s therapy services and operations in a number of areas. Most significant, AdvantageCare has brought to the Center a deep understanding of the care assessment and categorization process, both of which are critical to providing patients the right level of care and course of treatment so they recover more fully and more quickly.

As part of its optimized operations, the Center now offers six full days of therapy to patients. The sixth day allows patients to receive more therapy each week than they would elsewhere, and ultimately helps each patient reach their individual rehabilitation goals more quickly.

“Six day treatment plans aren’t by themselves unusual for facilities like ours,” said Froelich. “But what is different is that our weekend day of treatment is fully staffed and viewed as a full day of treatment. AdvantageCare’s full level of commitment to our patients and facility is demonstrated day-in and day-out by their professionalism and strong results.”

Another area where Froelich sees a difference in the AdvantageCare approach is the consistency of care delivered by the stable and experienced team of AdvantageCare therapists working at the Center. “Since working with AdvantageCare, I have been impressed by their low rates in staff turnover. Unlike many contract therapy companies that have difficulty retaining staff, AdvantageCare works hard to keep the same therapy teams in place for quality care purposes. Patients benefit by staying with familiar therapists that know them. The Center benefits by reducing, if not practically eliminating, the disruptions that inevitably occur with frequent change-overs in therapy personnel. As our Center gets ready for our new and expanded therapy wing, I am confident that AdvantageCare will continue to meet the growing therapy needs of the facility.