Brain Injury

Our expert clinical staff is dedicated to providing individualized evaluations and close patient monitoring. We offer focused, personalized treatment tailored to each person's specific recovery goals.

Our interdisciplinary team provides:

• Daily physician visits
• Nursing care with registered nurses who are advanced cardiac life support-certified
• Respiratory therapy- 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• Pharmacy
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Speech therapy
• Dietitian
• Case managers

The program is overseen by a neurologist. In addition, internists, pulmonologists, nephrologists, orthopedic consultants and infectious disease physicians address the medical issues presented by TBI and stroke patients such as:

• Respiratory management- including mechanical ventilation liberation and airway management
• Weekly ventilator wean rounds with pulmonologist
• Dialysis or renal management
• Wound care (including surgical wounds; stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers)
• Infectious disease management (i.e., sepsis and/or multidrug-resistant organisms)
• Pharmacological management (i.e., stabilizing drips)
• Specialized nutritional management (i.e., total parenteral nutrition and management of naso-gastric and gastrostomy/jejunostomy tubes.) These tubes supply liquid medicine and nutrition to critically ill patients. They are inserted directly into a vein, down the nose or under abdominal skin to either the stomach or small intestine, respectively.

• Language/communication evaluation and treatment for:
  
  • Aphasia, the loss of ability to understand and/or express speech, and language
  • Dysphagia, difficulty/discomfort in swallowing (program includes instrumental swallow evaluation and vital stimulation)
• Cognitive retraining to overcome deficits in thinking, decision-making and guidance on how to stay safe
• Mobility program focused on functional movement (e.g., getting in/out of bed, use of a wheelchair and walking)
• Balance, coordination, muscle strength and range of motion
• Daily living activities (e.g., bathing, dressing, toileting and self-feeding)
• Family education and training on how to help your loved one as he or she moves through the recovery process and the next level of care, or home.

Our hospitals are equipped to accept and care for patients emerging from coma; Rancho Los Amigos levels 1 through 3. Rancho Los Amigos levels are a commonly used scale for describing a brain injured patient’s level of activity. Level 1 is a comatose state, while level 8 signifies a patient who is independent and functions well in society.

Our program is designed to increase wakefulness, alertness and improve attention, incorporating pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches. The clinical staff intervenes to prevent additional medical complications (e.g., muscle or joint shortening, skin breakdown). Our patient schedules build in rest, activity and sleep periods to promote typical life patterns.