SKY Rehab to add 15 beds
Published 12:15 am Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Treatment of brain injuries resulting from strokes or trauma is about to be enhanced in Bowling Green.
Southern Kentucky Rehabilitation Hospital, which was approved last year for a certificate of need to expand its facility at 1300 Campbell Lane, held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday on that 15-bed, $4 million expansion.
The main beneficiaries of the added space at the rear of the building will be brain-injury patients and their caregivers.
“The addition will be dedicated to the care of patients with brain injuries,” said Stuart Locke, CEO of SKY Rehab. “It has long been a goal of our hospital to create a freestanding unit dedicated to brain injuries.”
Locke said SKY Rehab has been treating brain-injury patients since its opening in 1992 but had done so within its general patient population in the 61-bed facility.
Having this 8,400-square-foot addition will allow SKY Rehab to devote more resources to treating those who have experienced strokes or traumatic injury leading to brain damage.
Many of those patients have been forced to leave the area to get treatment, creating hardships both for the patients and their families.
“This will allow them to stay closer to home for treatment,” Locke said. “We’ll be able to serve more of these patients right here. They won’t have to go to a larger city.”
Locke said if construction goes according to plan the addition should be open in early 2022. He expects it to create “20 to 25” new jobs.
The certificate of need application submitted to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services made a compelling case for adding on to a SKY Rehab facility that is currently 65,761 square feet.
That application said the hospital’s patient load has been rising steadily in recent years.
SKY Rehab’s occupancy rate jumped from 80% in 2018 to 89% in 2019. It has fallen during the coronavirus pandemic, but Locke said demand is still high.
And much of that demand is driven by brain injuries – resulting either from stroke or from trauma such as an automobile accident or work injury – that are life-altering for victims and their families.
“Thousands of Kentuck-ians suffer traumatic brain injuries each year,” said Chell Austin, executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Kentucky. “These are sudden events that change families forever. This facility will help those people improve their quality of life and maybe let some of them get back to work.”
Locke said the addition at SKY Rehab will include all private beds, a gymnasium and an outdoor courtyard, all designed to help patients recover.
“We will help people return to playing an active role in our community,” Locke said. “To see someone who has lost their independence regain it is very satisfying.”
SKY Rehab is a subsidiary of Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based Vibra Healthcare, which has 65 health care facilities across 19 states.
Vibra Healthcare CEO Brad Hollinger, in an emailed statement, praised the SKY Rehab expansion.
“One of our priorities is to ensure patient access to the appropriate level of care,” Hollinger said. “The expansion … assures that access to our residents and community.”
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