The Joint Commission Accreditation

By demonstrating compliance with The Joint Commission’s national standards for health care quality and safety, HealthSouth Harmarville Rehabilitation Hospital was the first in the country to earn The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™.

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission is dedicated to continuously improving the safety and quality of the nation's health care through voluntary accreditation. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.

The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 8,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,800 other health care organizations that provide long term care, assisted living, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. The Joint Commission also accredits health plans, integrated delivery networks, and other managed care entities. In addition, The Joint Commission provides certification of disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services.

Stroke Rehabilitation Center of Excellence

In 2008, HealthSouth Harmarville was recognized as a stroke Rehab Center of Excellence.

The Stroke Rehabilitation Center of Excellence designation is a rigorous internal recognition program that 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.

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 course 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.

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

Stroke 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. Stroke support groups are also available to patients for follow-up care every other month.

Staff Certifications

• Certificates of Clinical Competence
• Vital Stim Certified Therapist
• Interactive Metronome Certifications
• Neuro-Developmental Treatment (NDT) Certified Therapist
• Clinical Instructor Certifications
• CPR Certifications
• Non-violent Crisis Intervention Certifications
• Certified Lymphedema Therapist
• Certified Hand Therapist
• Certified Case Managers
• Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurses
• Certified Wound Care Nurse
• Certified Ostomy Nurse
• Functional Independence Measurement Certifications
• Basic Cardiac Life Support Certifications
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support Certifications
• Certified Brain Injury specialist
• PA EMT-paramedic

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