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“When I started rehab, I needed two people just to help me move. I’m walking now with two different helpers – my canes.”

– Father John, pictured with with Karima Ratansi, Occupational Therapist (left) and Lena Sim, Physiotherapist
Father John’s Victory:
The Backbone to Move on His Own

In one harrowing month, Father John fell down 11 times. A spinal condition is causing the discs between his vertebrae to deteriorate and his spinal canal to narrow, compressing his spinal cord and his nerves. For years, he has suffered from chronic pain. More recently, a weakness penetrated his legs. He couldn’t stand, let alone walk. St. John’s Rehab Hospital helped Father John renew his faith – in himself.

When you’re in hospital for a long time with a complex medical condition, your energy decreases and your muscles weaken. Your ability to move and function declines dramatically. St. John’s Rehab Hospital’s expert rehabilitation team has developed a new program to help people, like Father John, who need to regain their strength. Through a regimen of exercise, energy conservation and emotional support, Father John returned confidently to his family, his life and his community.

Patient care excellence: seeing patients’ STAR potential

Father John benefited from our unique Short-Term Active Reconditioning (STAR) program, which is specifically focused on providing rehabilitation for people who have undergone general surgery or have a medical condition that results in a lengthy acute care hospital stay.

The program started in the spring of 2009 out of a partnership with North York General Hospital. The previous year, the two hospitals integrated our inpatient rehabilitation services into a specialized program at St. John’s Rehab. Our goal was to return people to their lives while relieving pressure on the healthcare system as it cares for an aging, growing population.

After acute care treatments are complete, patients are often forced to wait in hospital until there is space available for another, more appropriate level of care. By creating capacity in a specialized rehabilitation facility, beds can be freed up in an acute care hospital for other patients waiting in the emergency room. Working together, hospitals can all do what they do best – save lives in acute care, and rebuild lives in rehabilitation.

Weekend therapy: right care, right place, right time

In just three weeks, Father John went from being bedridden to walking out our doors on his own. His progress was quick because he had the opportunity to participate in therapy throughout the week.

Thanks to $4 million in annual funding from the Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), St. John’s Rehab became one of the first rehab hospitals in Toronto to extend all of its inpatient rehabilitation programs to seven days per week. We now admit and discharge patients on the weekends to assist with their recovery from many life-changing illnesses and injuries. Outpatient service hours have also been extended, eliminating our waiting list for care. This is another way that St. John’s Rehab is helping to free up space in the healthcare system.

Research: the freedom of working on the weekend

Our researchers have studied this innovative weekend service model and made important discoveries. From February to September 2009, St. John’s Rehab returned nearly three per cent more patients back to their lives with the same excellent outcomes as compared to those same months in 2008. We also helped people reduce the length of their stay at the hospital – our patients returned to their homes and families an average of nearly two days earlier.

A recent survey of patients participating in weekend therapy showed that 90.6 per cent were satisfied with the overall quality of their care. Patients appreciate that they can get the care they need sooner and spend less time in the hospital and more time in their communities.