Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital is one of only 18 hospitals in HealthSouth's nationwide network of more than 90 rehabilitation hospitals to be recognized as a Stroke Rehabilitation Center of Excellence.

The Stroke Rehabilitation Center of Excellence internal recognition program highlights the accomplishments of HealthSouth hospitals that have exceeded established benchmarks in clinical programming and patient outcomes for the treatment of stroke.

Some of those benchmarks include the program being led by a board-certified physician with expertise and specialized training in stroke. The hospital's medical staff includes specialty physicians in the areas of neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, urology, and pulmonary and internal medicine.

"Experience in working with stroke patients is critical," said Dr. Peter Bagley, Fairlawn's medical director. "The side-effects from stroke are not always visible; many times they are cognitive resulting in behavioral changes, which make it hard for family members to cope."

HealthSouth Stroke Rehabilitation Centers of Excellence employ treatment teams of specially trained clinicians in the areas of physical, occupational and speech therapies, in addition to nursing.

These treatment teams meet weekly to develop individualized courses of treatment for patients. The course of treatment could include a combination of the following specialty programs: cognitive retraining, behavior management, comprehensive spasticity management, neuropsychological testing and treatment, augmentative communication, driving education, and gait and balance training.

HealthSouth stroke teams also meet with the patient and family to obtain input for the plan of care. Structured family education series provide caregivers disease-specific information on prevention, medication management and coping strategies.

HealthSouth Rehabilitation Centers of Excellence provide discharge planning and continuing education initiatives to stroke patients in the form of vocational and community re-entry education, transitional living, home evaluations and therapeutic home visits.