While many of us are yearning to celebrate the holiday season, it’s important to understand the potential risk of spreading the coronavirus during holiday gatherings. Celebrating virtually or with members of your own household poses a low risk for spread, while in-person gatherings pose varying levels of risk. These are several factors that contribute to the risk of infection or infecting others with the coronavirus at holiday celebrations. Event organizers and attendees should consider the risk of virus spread based on event size and the use of mitigation strategies as outlined in the Conside ..read more

Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Toledo, Encompass Health’s fourth inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Ohio, opened its doors and welcomed its first patient on Nov. 16, 2020. The freestanding inpatient rehabilitation hospital is located at 4647 Monroe Street in Toledo and includes 40 private patient rooms, a large therapy gym with advanced rehabilitation technologies, an activities of daily living suite, therapy courtyard, dining room and dayroom areas. Complementing local acute care services, the hospital serves patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries includi ..read more

As a Company, Encompass Health values the importance of creating an inclusive and diverse culture for both employees and patients. We also realize that it isn’t enough to simply say we are diverse, we must show this by incorporating this culture into the way we work and interact with others. At Encompass Health we recognize the importance of leveraging the differences of those around us in order to learn and grow. One way in which we are achieving this is through our hospital diversity committees, which were put in place in order to carry out our values around inclusion and diversity within ou ..read more

From wearing extra personal protective equipment (PPE) to finding innovative ways to keep our patients connected to family and friends, 2020 has definitely has been a year of unprecedented change for those of us working in healthcare. We were forced to find ways to care for our patients and each other while navigating the ever-changing news coming out about this new coronavirus. At Encompass Health, we were able to adapt to these changes quickly, in part because of our constant communications among our home office staff and hospitals, but also because of policies we had in place pre-pandemic ..read more

Encompass Health has a longstanding commitment to building an inclusive work environment where all employees feel respected, accepted and empowered. Earlier this year, I committed to advancing diversity and inclusion efforts in the workplace by signing the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge. By signing this, we have pledged to continue cultivating a workplace where diverse perspectives and experiences are valued. We have come a long way over the years in the areas of inclusion and diversity as a Company, but there is still more work to be done.  As an initiative of the C ..read more

With over 5 million people currently living with Alzheimer’s, the disease has impacted nearly every family in America in one way or another. Through our network of facility and home-based care, Encompass Health sees the effects of this disease on patients and their families every day. As the number of people with dementia continues to rise, Encompass Health is furthering its commitment to helping those living with dementia by participating in the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s for the fourth consecutive year, this time as a national team.   “We became a national team beca ..read more

Predictive models will never replace critical thinking, but it can help to inform and support it, said Dina Walker, the national director of case management for Encompass Health.  For the past year, Walker worked with leadership from both the company’s inpatient rehabilitation and home health segments to develop a new predictive model and protocols that focus on reducing readmissions after a patient is discharged from one of the company’s inpatient rehabilitation hospitals. The algorithm was created using data from more than 400,000 patients who received care at an Encompass Health inpati ..read more

When a patient recovering from severe to critical COVID-19 arrives at The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis (TRISL), Dr. Prateek Grover can expect certain things. First, the patient has already had an extended stay in an acute care hospital and probably spent time in the ICU, possibly on a ventilator. They are also likely to be extremely weak and deconditioned, with limited mobility and cognitive fog after a long stay at the hospital separated from loved ones. What Grover and others treating these patients are not sure of is the long-term effects of COVID-19. “We’re finding that the manife ..read more

Renaldo Wall has no idea how he got COVID-19 or why he had such a severe reaction to the virus. He does know that after more than two months in the hospital in and out of a coma and on a ventilator, he’s happy to be alive. Wall still has trouble breathing and is on oxygen. Wall is one of those inexplicable cases — he had no underlying conditions and at 56, was healthy, even training to run marathon. However, the virus hit him hard. It was at the start of the pandemic. There was still little known about it at the time, and the range of symptoms was changing daily. Wall’s symptoms started on Mar ..read more

For some time, Encompass Health has targeted opening four to six inpatient rehabilitation hospitals each year. We are well on our way to meeting that goal for 2020. The repeal of Florida’s inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) certificate of need law last year has opened doors for many additional growth opportunities in Florida. Currently, the Company has 12 hospitals in Florida. Encompass Health previously announced plans to build new hospitals in North Tampa, Naples, Clermont, Pensacola, St. Augustine, Cape Coral, Lakeland and Jacksonville, and the Company is not finished. You can expect m ..read more