First Look: ProMedica Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation at MetroHealth

If you're a senior and recovering from hip or knee replacement surgery, a stroke, a broken hip or some other serious injury or illness and aren't strong enough to go home, ProMedica Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation at MetroHealth is where you'll want to be.

The new multimillion-dollar, 96-bed nursing and subacute rehabilitation center is part of MetroHealth's recently renovated Old Brooklyn Campus. The campus offers a rarely found comprehensive continuum of care for both interdisciplinary rehabilitation following injury or illness and for healthy aging, providing patients and their families access to a wide array of services in a single location.

With construction and employee training complete, the skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility expects to open in early spring.

What makes it unique is that it's in the same building as MetroHealth's Senior Health Outpatient Program, which brings together dozens of primary care and specialist physicians who provide personalized care to those 55 and older. Patients in the new skilled nursing facility will have access to those caregivers.

It also shares space with the MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute's Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital, ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best hospitals in the United States and the best hospital in Ohio for rehabilitating patients after severe stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, multi-system trauma and other serious and medically complex illnesses and injuries. Patients in the new skilled nursing facility will have access to those nationally renowned rehabilitation specialists.

And it is steps away from MetroHealth's Center for Rehabilitation Research, which is recognized as a global leader in the development of innovative rehabilitation treatments for persons with stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and chronic pain.

Finally, the Old Brooklyn Campus is home to the Adult Day Center run by the McGregor Foundation as part of PACE, the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. PACE provides physical therapy, activities, medication management and other care for those 55 and older from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

The skilled nursing center is a joint venture between The MetroHealth System and ProMedica Health System.

A mission-based not-for-profit health and well-being organization headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, ProMedica serves communities in 28 states. The organization has more than 45,000 employees, 12 hospitals, 1000+ health care providers, a health plan and 335+ assisted living facilities, skilled nursing centers, memory care communities, and hospice and home health care agencies. Driven by its mission to improve health and well-being, ProMedica has been nationally recognized for its advocacy and efforts to address social determinants of health, its focus on championing healthy aging and its culture of innovation.

"ProMedica's track record makes it the perfect partner for us," says Akram Boutros, MD, President and CEO of MetroHealth. "We are both committed to putting patients first and continuing to care for them beyond their hospital stay, until they have what they need to meet their health goals."

"This is just one way ProMedica and MetroHealth are working together to meet the growing health care needs of an aging population," says Angela Brandt, President, ProMedica Senior Care. "Both organizations have strong reputations in taking care of their communities, employees and patients, and we are excited to open the new center. It's this kind of partnership that ProMedica hopes to replicate in cities across the country."

Both Angela Brandt and Dr. Boutros pointed out that it is patients who will benefit most from the partnership.

The state-of-the-art skilled nursing facility will provide rehabilitation services to short-term senior patients transitioning from hospital to home in addition to 24-hour skilled nursing care. That care will be provided in private and semi-private rooms with flat-screen televisions, Wi-Fi service and a focus on safety, dignity and personal preferences.  

"This is not a traditional nursing home where patients come and stay for months," says  Lindsay Patyak, the ProMedica administrator who will oversee the new facility. "This is short-term rehab and nursing. Our goal is to get patients to the next level."

MetroHealth's Dr. Michelle Dietz, who specializes in geriatric medicine, will serve as medical director and all other physicians and nurse practitioners will be MetroHealth employees. That includes rehabilitation physicians, rehabilitation psychologists, cardiologists, neurologists, podiatrists and other specialists who provide outpatient care at the Old Brooklyn Health Center.

"To have a skilled nursing facility, an acute rehabilitation hospital, our senior health outpatient physician program, PACE, outpatient rehabilitation, a retail pharmacy and a rehabilitation research center all in one place is truly special," says Tom Lowenkamp, MetroHealth's Executive Director of Senior Care Operations. "What we're offering here at our Old Brooklyn Campus are complete wrap-around services."

The last piece of those wrap-around services is in-home care.  A partnership between MetroHealth and the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio was formalized on January 1, 2022, ensuring that patients receive seamless care at home after leaving the skilled nursing facility so they can achieve the best possible health outcomes.