Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital – Bartram Campus is Now Open
Beyond MagazineJul 6, 2022
Brooks Rehabilitation is excited to announce the opening of our new 60-bed, state-of-the-art inpatient rehabilitation hospital, located on Brooks’ existing 115-acre campus in the Bartram Park area of Jacksonville, Fla.
Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital – Bartram Campus joins our two existing rehabilitation hospitals allowing us to treat more patients in need of our specialized services. Our original 160-bed rehabilitation hospital on University Blvd. is one of the busiest in the country providing care for more than 3,000 patients per year. Brooks also manages a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in partnership with Halifax Health in Daytona Beach, Fla.
“With the tremendous growth on the First Coast, the demand for our specialized services was more than we could meet in our existing hospitals,” said Bryan Murphy, MHA, RN, BSN, CRRN, Vice President of Operations. “Our new hospital will provide additional access and exceptional care to patients who are recovering from brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, strokes, transplants or other disabling illnesses.”
Designed for Rehabilitation
When the decision was first made to build a new hospital, the executive team at Brooks wanted to ensure that those working in the new hospital were empowered and included in its design. A committee was formed that encompassed multiple disciplines – physicians, therapists, nurses, case managers and the Brooks Projects team.
Amanda Osborne, PT, MBA, Vice President of Operations and Administrator for the Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital – University Campus, led the committee through multiple sessions and breakout groups.
From the overall flow of the hospital down to the smallest details such as the placement of outlets, the committee worked with architects and interior designers for 16 weeks. The end goal was to create a hospital that incorporated a modern workflow, with mobility and electronics being core components.
Therapists were concerned with having training spaces where they could teach patients how to perform everyday tasks in a new way once they returned home. They were actively involved in the design of the activity areas and the therapy gyms, including the technology in each space.
Nurses on the committee recommended patient room workflow that incorporated the needs of the patient, families, and staff. A focus of efficiency was included in the design to allow nurses to spend time more time with patients.
The cross collaboration and input from staff on the frontlines each and every day was invaluable to those designing the space. Design partners Gresham Smith and contractor Perry-McCall Construction then worked tirelessly in a complex COVID and supply chain environment to bring their ideas to fruition.
Assembling the Team
In late 2020, Murphy was named the VP of Operations and Parag Shah, MD, FACHE was promoted to Medical Director.
“The first word that comes to mind is ‘partnership,’” said Murphy. “Dr. Shah and I are strong partners. We are aligned in our combined vision to elevate what we do every day. He is a phenomenal physician and a dynamic individual. I feel very privileged to have all that expertise at the new hospital at Bartram Campus.”
Over the next year, the “partners” first identified the remainder of their leaders and then assembled their teams from a combination of existing staff and individuals new to Brooks. “Our clinical teams are among the highest trained and educated in the profession and ensuring the right fit is crucial. Each new team member brings varying strengths – including clinical expertise, compassion, positivity and innovation,” said Murphy.
In total, 80 employees started at the new hospital on April 4, 2022. That number will grow to 150 as the hospital census ramps up.
Different Locations – Same World-Class Care
The University Campus hospital and the new Bartram Campus hospital were built to be as aligned, similar and standardized as possible. “Our acute care partners rely on us to be able to serve complex patients – and our complexity is at the top 1 percent in the nation,” said Murphy. We’ve built the infrastructure to continue to support that, because we know that the patients have specific, significant needs – stroke, spinal cord injury, brain injury, major multiple traumas, complex medical management – those are the patients that we’re here to help. We’re able to provide the very highest level of service at both hospitals.”
Additionally, the hospitals will have shared governance councils in research, patient experience, quality, professional practice and informatics. There will be representatives from each hospital on these councils to bridge the two entities and share best practices. These governance councils allow frontline employees to drive solutions.
“The leadership teams at each hospital collaborate frequently to make sure that we’re growing together as a system. Our goal at the Bartram hospital is to extend all the excellent services that we have been providing for more than 50 years, and we can’t be more excited about doing that,” said Murphy.