Select Specialty Hospitals: Tulsa's Post-Acute Recovery Provider

Critical Illness Recovery Hospitals can play a significant role in treating and healing the side effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke.

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.

Our multidisciplinary team provides individualized care plans. Brain and stroke recovery services include:

• 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 highly trained care teams, including dedicated telemetry technicians, manage patients who have survived complex, life-saving treatments including Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, multiple bypass surgery, along with congestive heart failure and cardiac arrest.

Select Specialty Hospitals' programs focus on skills, strategies and techniques you need to restore strength, avoid complications and move forward safely and confidently. Your team will establish specific cardiac parameters and monitor you closely, particularly during exercise, rest periods and recovery after exercise. In addition, we will provide the care and extensive training to help you:

• Protect your incision while dressing, grooming and bathing
• Practice sternal precautions
• Follow guidelines to minimize pain, swelling and the risk of potential complications
• Maintain blood pressure and cholesterol levels
• Improve any vocal or swallowing issues
• Use adaptive equipment to facilitate self-care activities
• Safely transfer to a chair, commode or shower
• Move in and out of bed and turn properly
• Adapt new ways of performing daily activities
• Conserve energy
• Prepare you to begin a cardiac rehabilitation program under the direction of your cardiologist or surgeon

Select Specialty Hospitals provide a variety of treatments for infectious diseases. When a patient is chronically ill, infections can occur. Through our Antibiotic Stewardship Program, infectious disease teams are trained in reducing or eliminating infections, such as:

• Osteomyelitis
• Endocarditis
• Sepsis
• Bacterial infections
• Viral infections (including COVID-19)
• Fungal infections
• Post-surgical wound infections
• Infected pressure ulcers
• Cellulitis

Select Specialty Hospital’s highly individualized program will also help to maximize recovery for patients whose needs may be complicated by other existing medical conditions.

Patients with medically complex conditions receive daily physician visits. Individualized treatment plans can include 24-hour respiratory therapy as well as physical, occupational or speech therapy. Nutritional counseling, radiology and laboratory services, and a clinical pharmacist are also available.

Patients come to us with a variety of conditions, including:

• Prolonged surgical recovery from general, cardiac, thoracic or gastric conditions
• Traumatic injury, including spinal cord, head injury, cerebral hemorrhage, or orthopedic complications
• Long-term intravenous antibiotics
• Malnutrition
• Cancers
• Congestive heart failure
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder
• Sepsis
• Renal failure
• Multi-system complications
• Uncontrolled diabetes

Treatment, as directed by a physician, is tailored to your specific medical, physical and functional needs and goals, all targeted to help:

• Restore physical abilities
• Build strength and endurance
• Minimize pain
• Improve balance and mobility
• Begin building skill in daily activities
• Avoid complications

We provide comprehensive treatment for patients requiring neurological care. 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. An individualized treatment plan may benefit patients experiencing:

• Guillain-Barre syndrome
• Anoxic brain injury
• Multiple sclerosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
• Paraplegia

At Select Specialty Hospital, patients will work to:

• Restore or maintain physical abilities
• Build strength and endurance
• Improve balance and mobility
• Enhance skills to perform daily activities
• Improve speech and swallowing
• Manage pain, spasticity or other complications

We help manage the progression of your disease and any exacerbations that may occur.

Restoring a patient’s ability to breathe on their own is often the first step toward healing and returning home. Our board-certified pulmonologists, pulmonary program directors, respiratory therapists, nursing and rehabilitation professionals, pharmacists and dietitians work together to implement a program that has made Select Specialty Hospital a nationwide leader in ventilator liberation—the process of discontinuing mechanical breathing support.

Guided by our expert teams, patients will transition through a program that strengthens their lungs and gradually reduces their reliance on mechanical ventilation.

Treatment for pulmonary/ventilator issues may benefit patients with:

• Mechanical ventilator dependence
• Chronic lung diseases, (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, emphysema)
• Neuromuscular disorders
• Acute respiratory ailments
• Pneumonia
• Post-surgical complications
• Spinal cord injury
• Stroke
• Brain injury
• Metabolic encephalopathy

Treatment is carefully integrated and tailored to your specific needs and goals. We help:

• Restore physical function and the ability to perform daily activities
• Gain strength and endurance
• Improve balance and mobility
• Manage pain and spasticity
• Overcome speech or communication deficits
• Address swallowing issues or nutritional concerns
• Develop new cognitive, communication and behavioral strategies
• Improve vision deficits
• Deal with emotional, psychological and/or social challenges
• Return to home, work, school or community activities with as much confidence and independence as possible

Select Specialty Hospital’s highly individualized program will also help to maximize recovery for patients whose needs may be complicated by other existing medical conditions.

Our renal program provides evidenced-based treatment focusing on stopping or delaying the progression of acute renal failure (ARF) or end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Our expertise includes management of:

• Kidney disease stage IV-V patients requiring dialysis
• Acute renal failure requiring dialysis pending kidney recovery
• Medically complex diagnoses, also requiring dialysis
• Pre- or post-transplant cases requiring dialysis
• Patients recovering from continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT)
• Bedside dialysis in many locations

Each patient receives an individualized treatment plan supported by specialized nursing, as well as nutritional guidance, medication management and rehabilitation therapy with the goal of improving quality of life.

Our services include:

• Daily physician assessments
• Low patient-to-nurse ratios
• Respiratory therapy
• Physical and occupational therapy
• Dialysis
• Clinical dietitian and nutritional support
• Radiology and laboratory services
• Clinical pharmacy
• Patient/family education

Specially trained wound care nurses follow individualized treatment plans to protect skin integrity, manage chronic non-healing wounds, prevent infection, provide critical nutrition and promote optimal healing. Our multidisciplinary care teams treat:

• Ulcers:
  • Severe and complicated
  • Vascular
  • Arterial
• Non-healing surgical wounds
• Wound infections
• Bone infections (osteomyelitis)
• Amputations
• Burns
• Severe skin infections
• Post-surgical wounds
• Cellulitis requiring prolonged antibiotic therapy
• Intravenous nutrition
• Dialysis

Patients at Select Specialty Hospital benefit from:

• Wound prevention programs beginning on day one
• Negative-Pressure wound treatment
• Nurses certified in wound care management
• Nutritional assessments conducted by registered dietitians
• Meal plans optimized for maximum healing and recovery
• Bedside or in-hospital surgical procedures such as debridement, are available in many locations
• Plastic surgery consultations, if ordered by physicians

Arrival at our critical illness recovery hospital is carefully orchestrated by our admissions team, who strives to meet patient needs and ensures a smooth transition between facilities.

Shortly after your arrival, a physician-led team of health care professionals conducts a full patient assessment. Based on that, they develop a customized treatment plan to guide care.

Patients are supported by daily physician rounds, 24-hour nursing and respiratory care, as well as physical, occupational and speech therapy to promote functional independence.