Joint venture builds on partners’ strengths
When two work as one, all benefit
Sometimes a partnership gives both sides exactly what they want, plus a little bonus. And in the case of Nashville (TN) Rehab ilitation Hospital (NRH) and Easter Seals Tennessee, that’s precisely what has happened.
The two organizations formed a joint venture at Easter Seals’ facility in Nashville. The new program opened in the spring and had several commercial patients immediately. By June, it had 100 patient visits a month. The center’s goal is to reach, within the next year, a rate of 180 patient visits per month, says Touby Witzky, chief financial officer of NRH.
"The joint venture gives us access to some of the specialty programs that Easter Seals has a niche in," Witzky says.
The joint venture also will allow the hospital to expand its geographic area to the side of town where it previously had no presence. And the partnership will enable the hospital to expand its services to include a specialized movement and mobility program, which is developed from a copyrighted Easter Seals model.
Incorporated as NRH at Easter Seals, the new program includes a physiatrist, who will serve as the medical director, and an aquatic specialist.
"We see patients who have muscle spasticity, such as problems caused by strokes, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, and head injury," says Catherine Stallworth, MD, the physiatrist and medical director. "What we do is put patients through a rehabilitation program, and any medical interventions that need to be done I provide, and any rehab needs are addressed by physical therapy and occupational therapy. The plan is to transition them from the rehab to the pool, where the aquatic specialist will be involved."
Here’s how the joint venture works:
• Start-up investment and organization: The rehab hospital provided 60% of the capital cost, and Easter Seals put in 40%. Easter Seals leases facility space — a 654-square-foot area within the organization’s new Easter Seals Turner Family Center — to the joint venture corporation. The entire Easter Seals center is a 20,000-square-foot complex that includes health and wellness/fitness equipment and rehabilitation for people with special needs and disabilities, says Ed Giannotti, chief operating officer for Easter Seals Tennessee.
Easter Seals has 60% control and authority because it is a nonprofit organization; by law, it must retain the majority of control over NRH at Easter Seals. "A for-profit entity cannot be construed as taking advantage of a not-for-profit status," Giannotti says. NRH at Easter Seals contracts with Nashville Rehabilitation Hospital to manage the clinic’s operations.
• Staffing new business: Nashville Rehabil itation Hospital’s therapists work at the new center on an as-needed basis. "We can hire a therapist at NRH at Easter Seals for two hours a day and keep the therapist employed for the rest of the day at our hospital," Witzky says.
Stallworth, who has her own private practice in addition to serving as medical director, supervises the therapists. "The primary benefits are the multidisciplinary approach, where the physician is working hand in hand with the therapist," she says. "We’ll truly be working as a team."
• New services provided: One of the most important new services the joint venture provides is Botox treatment for spasticity patients. Stallworth and therapists evaluate patients and assess their viability for injections of Botox. If a patient qualifies, Stallworth gives them an injection to relieve the contractions of their muscles in arms or legs.
Then therapists can work with the patient more easily, Giannotti says. "The Botox allows the therapy to take some effect and realize some improvement on the patient," he explains.
Other services include a urinary incontinence program and treatment for oncology patients to reduce swelling caused by the accumulation of fluid in tissues as a result of radiation therapy and surgery. Plans include massage therapy for patients, including massage therapy done in the pool, Giannotti says.
Also, patients treated at NRH at Easter Seals may use the center’s health and fitness facilities as an extension of their therapy. "The Easter Seals’ mission is helping people with disabilities, so you have resources there for patients and families," Stallworth says.
Giannotti calls the joint venture center a one-stop shop for therapy services. "Say a stroke patient comes in here and has undergone inpatient therapy, the patient also could continue with outpatient therapy and an exercise regimen."
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