If you or a family member have suffered a traumatic injury, illness, or surgery, you may be wondering how you will get your life back. By emphasizing ability, not disability, the staff on our Medical Rehabilitation Unit can help you make your way toward health and independence.

On the Medical Rehabilitation Unit at Cayuga Medical Center, we treat patients recovering from major multiple trauma, head and brain injury, amputation, stroke, hip and knee reconstruction, neuromuscular disease, and other disabling conditions. Our medical director is Dr. Andrew Morpurgo, who is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation. He works closely with our unit director, Bernice Miller, RN, and a large, multidisciplinary team of experienced caregivers

To find out more about how we can help, just click on the following links:

                   ●  Our Philosophy of Care

                   ●  Who We Can Help

                   ●  Getting Started

                   ●  Your Team for Recovery

                   ●  Making a Smooth Transition after Discharge

Our Philosophy of Care

Each patient who comes to us for help is an individual with specific challenges to overcome. Our goal is to help you recover abilities, regain confidence, and return home with the skills needed to live life to the fullest.

You will work hard and so will our care team. We focus our efforts and our attention on your progress; we celebrate your successes and help you plan for the future. Families and friends are an integral part of the rehabilitation process, and we teach them how to reinforce the gains made through therapy. The work you and family do here prepares you to cope with changes in lifestyle following your trauma or illness.

Who We Can Help

Before anyone is admitted to our medical rehabilitation unit, our multidisciplinary care team conducts a thorough patient assessment to determine if our approach to care and level of intensity is appropriate for the individual. To be admitted to the unit, you must be determined to have the stamina necessary to participate in three hours per day of active therapy. We will only accept you into the program if we believe we can truly help.

Getting Started

As soon as patients are medically stable, they are admitted to the medical rehabilitation unit by Dr. Morpurgo or his colleague, Dr. Melissa Thibault. Twenty-four hour nursing care and physician coverage allow us to meet the medical needs of patients while beginning the rehabilitation effort.

Timing can make a difference: we know that patients who wait until they are discharged from the hospital to begin rehabilitation have already missed important opportunities early in the healing process. By initiating a rehabilitation program as quickly as possible, you may experience greater recovery from dysfunction, which can reduce the amount of time you require home care or other support services.

Patients from any acute care hospital or medical center may be admitted to our medical rehabilitation unit. This means that if you or a loved is hospitalized out of town, you can be transferred here for medical rehabilitation. For more information on admission to our unit, simply call us at (607)274-4555 and ask for our unit manager or medical director.

Your Team for Recovery

The rehabilitation specialists on our unit work as a team, using an interdisciplinary approach. We interact daily with patients and families to establish individualized, goal-directed activity aimed at restoring function and preventing complications. Activities are designed to promote self-care, mobility, bowel and bladder management, safety, and pain management.

The core rehabilitation team includes:

●  the patient and his or her family members

●  a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation

●  an occupational therapist and an occupational therapy assistant, who teach activities to help flexibility, strength, coordination, visual perception, and cognition

●  a physical therapist and a physical therapy assistant, who use therapeutic procedures and exercise to help you regain maximum function, build strength, increase range of motion, and improve coordination of movement

●  rehabilitation nurses who provide round-the-clock care and education

●  a community health-care coordinator who helps arrange services and treatments after discharge, to assure a smooth transition to home life for the patient and family

●  speech therapists to help you improve any speech or language disorders and any swallowing difficulties related to your illness

●  a recreational therapist who creates a program of leisure activities to reinforce your therapeutic goals for recovery

●  a nutritionist who works with you to develop the best diet for your recovery

Making a Smooth Transition

Once you are ready to leave the unit and go home, our community health-care coordinator will help put plans in place for the next steps. You may require visiting nurse service, and perhaps outpatient occupational, physical, or speech therapy. Office visits are arranged for follow-up care with our physiatrist as well as with the patient’s primary care physician. Outpatient therapy is available in the medical center’s outpatient rehabilitation department, completing the continuum of care.

Of the medical rehabilitation patients we help, almost 90 percent are able to return home once they are discharged. By emphasizing ability, not disability, we help can help you reshape your life.