Rehabilitation Center

On July 27, nominated members of Bel Air Health and Rehabilitation Center were honored at a recognition luncheon at Turf Valley Conference Center by HFAM.

Many people think of nursing homes as places to go to die. But here in Maryland, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers are in fact places people go to live. They are a big part of the solution to the state's health care challenges, providing quality and cost-effective transitional, rehab, long-term and high-acuity care to those in need. With the impending implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Maryland, we have an opportunity to identify and pilot ways in which Maryland's skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers can be essential to providing expanded care to people and families in need and deploying center‐based resources into the community for public health challenges.

Leslie Leopold, 39, can now put her shoes on with ease -- thanks to the help she has received at a new rehabilitation center.The Columbia resident, who has limited coordination in her hand because of a ligament injury she suffered in a car accident in April, is a patient at the Rehabilitation Services Center at Howard County General Hospital.One of the gadgets designed for Ms. Leopold at the center is a pair of elastic shoestrings that allow her to get into her shoes without untying them.

Margaret Lorraine Fusco, a homemaker who had worked in department stores and run a day care center, died Oct. 10 of Alzheimer's disease complications at Citizens Care and Rehabilitation Center in Havre de Grace. The former White Marsh resident was 69. Born Margaret Lorraine Hennel in Baltimore, she was raised on Baylis Street and was a 1961 graduate of Patterson Park High School. She lived with her family for many years on Chesterfield Avenue in Belair-Edison. As a young woman, she worked at Tru Fit Clothes and the old Epstein's department store in Highlandtown.

In an effort to cut health care costs and remain competitive, Howard County's only hospital has found a location for an outpatient rehabilitation center that it plans to open with the University of Maryland Medical System.Moving the rehabilitation services from Howard County General Hospital to a new site in east Columbia's Owen Brown village will enable the private hospital to charge lower rates than the state-mandated rates charged at the hospital."It will save the consumer and insurers money," said Victor A. Broccolino, president of Howard County General.

A Glen Burnie father has asked the Army to surrender the ground where it once trained for war to a nobler cause.Ralph Crawson, whose son was born brain-damaged and club-footed, wants to use a portion ofthe surplus land at Fort George G. Meade as a recreation and rehabilitation center for the physically and mentally handicapped and disabled veterans."

Sarah Bentrem, the 8-year-old Virginia girl who nearly died in the March 6 Seaport Taxi accident that killed five other passengers, has been released from the hospital in Baltimore. She was the last of the 25 people on board the water taxi to be hospitalized after their harbor shuttle capsized in a storm. Sarah was released from the University of Maryland Medical Center early yesterday and transported by ambulance to the Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center in Charlottesville, Va., according to hospital officials and her family.

POMONA, Calif. -- Jeff Lukas, the trainer who was run over by a horse in a stable-area accident at Santa Anita last December, took a significant step in his recovery this week when he was transferred to a private rehabilitation center.Lukas, 36, is now at Casa Colina, a rehabilitation center here that helps patients recover from head trauma injuries. Lukas had been at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Calif., since the accident on Dec. 15 until Wednesday.Lukas was trampled by the colt Tabasco Cat after the horse got loose from his handlers.

Sinai Hospital of Baltimore announced Wednesday it has opened a 20-bed rehabilitation center to treat patients who have suffered brain injuries, strokes or other neurological disorders. The $7.7 million Louis and Phyllis Friedman Neurological Rehabilitation Center is located on the fifth floor of the hospital's South Tower. Features of the center include: • A dedicated nine-bed brain injury unit with the highest number of certified brain injury specialists in Maryland • A gym filled with the latest technology including a ZeroG gait and balance training system and the latest generation of training devices for visual perception • A simulated community called Greater Heights that helps facilitate patients' integration into their own community following discharge, featuring grocery store and bus stop settings  and an ATM  • A fully equipped home transition apartment that allows patients to replicate the activities they will be doing at home • Specially designed, private patient rooms that can be adjusted to a person's particular therapy needs to help control levels of stimulation The center was built with the help of a $2 million grant from the state of Maryland and a lead gift from Louis and Phyllis Friedman.

John W. Patterson Jr., 74, lacrosse star, coach John W. Patterson Jr., a lacrosse star who coached at Kenwood High School and was elected to the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, died Monday of leukemia at Mount St. Mary's Hospital in Lewiston, N.Y. He was 74 and lived in Sanborn, N.Y. Mr. Patterson, a defense and attackman who was a member of the All-New England team in 1950 and 1951, came to Baltimore in 1951 to coach at Sollers Point High School after earning...

Sinai Hospital of Baltimore announced Wednesday it has opened a 20-bed rehabilitation center to treat patients who have suffered brain injuries, strokes or other neurological disorders. The $7.7 million Louis and Phyllis Friedman Neurological Rehabilitation Center is located on the fifth floor of the hospital's South Tower. Features of the center include: • A dedicated nine-bed brain injury unit with the highest number of certified brain injury specialists in Maryland • A gym filled with the latest technology including a ZeroG gait and balance training system and the latest generation of training devices for visual perception • A simulated community called Greater Heights that helps facilitate patients' integration into their own community following discharge, featuring grocery store and bus stop settings  and an ATM  • A fully equipped home transition apartment that allows patients to replicate the activities they will be doing at home • Specially designed, private patient rooms that can be adjusted to a person's particular therapy needs to help control levels of stimulation The center was built with the help of a $2 million grant from the state of Maryland and a lead gift from Louis and Phyllis Friedman.

On July 27, nominated members of Bel Air Health and Rehabilitation Center were honored at a recognition luncheon at Turf Valley Conference Center by HFAM.

Nearly 70 elderly patients and vulnerable adults must find new homes because of the planned closure of Harborside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, a sprawling facility with numerous fire hazards uncovered in a recent state inspection. The nursing home - the first in Maryland to accept AIDS patients in 1985 - will shut down within the next month after Medicaid and Medicare stop paying for patient care. The federal health care programs decided to cut off funding after a March inspection by the state found more than 30 safety violations, primarily due to structural problems.

The federal government has filed a lawsuit against Kernan Hospital seeking $8.1 million because of what is says was improper billing to the Medicare and Medicaid system. The lawsuit filed by the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense accuses the rehabilitation hospital in Baltimore of falsely manipulating its computerized billing system so that it looked like patients had a severe form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor. Hospitals are compensated more for a patient who has a more severe and complex diagnosis.

The Carrie Murray Nature Center on Ridgetop Road in Baltimore features a number of attractions: The Baltimore City online description of the center lists an insect zoo, reptile and amphibian displays and year-round nature programs. Perhaps one of its most interesting offerings is the rehabilitation center for disabled birds of prey. The Carrie Murray center was established in the 1980s through a donation by former Oriole and baseball Hall-of-Famer Eddie Murray. It is named in honor of his mother, according to the Web site.

Anna E. Cullinan, who taught kindergarten in Baltimore public schools for more than four decades, died of pneumonia Saturday at Ellicott City Health and Rehabilitation Center. The former longtime Catonsville resident was 101. Miss Cullinan was born in Baltimore and raised in her family's home in the 1900 block of W. Lanvale St. She was a 1921 graduate of Western High School. She was a graduate of Maryland State Normal School, then on Carrollton Avenue in Lafayette Square. Miss Cullinan taught pupils for 43 years in city schools, spending the last eight years of her career at Lyndhurst Elementary School, where she retired in 1965.

The Carrie Murray Nature Center on Ridgetop Road in Baltimore features a number of attractions: The Baltimore City online description of the center lists an insect zoo, reptile and amphibian displays and year-round nature programs. Perhaps one of its most interesting offerings is the rehabilitation center for disabled birds of prey. The Carrie Murray center was established in the 1980s through a donation by former Oriole and baseball Hall-of-Famer Eddie Murray. It is named in honor of his mother, according to the Web site.

An elderly Anne Arundel County man was seriously burned after his clothes caught fire from a cigar he had been smoking at a rehabilitation facility in Marley Neck on Saturday. Robert E. Burkentine, 81, a resident of Millennium Health and Rehabilitation Center, was in critical condition yesterday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Burkentine had been smoking in a designated area, and burned himself as he tried to extinguish the cigar, said county Fire Lt. George Wiseman. He suffered second- and third-degree burns over 18 percent of his body, Wiseman said.

`Happy Baby' classes at Learning Center The Learning Center at Carroll Hospital Center is offering a class to help parents and other caregivers learn methods for keeping babies content. "The Happiest Baby on the Block" class is based on the approach pioneered by child development specialist and pediatrician Harvey Karp, and presented in his book and DVD, The Happiest Baby on the Block. Parents learn proven ways to quickly calm a crying baby, such as the "Calming Reflex," the "5 S's" and the "Cuddle Cur."

Kathryn Towson, a former teacher and reading specialist for the Baltimore public school system, died of pneumonia Friday at Bel Air Health and Rehabilitation Center. She was 94. Born in Baltimore, Kathryn Virginia Henderson attended city public schools and Maryland State Normal School, now Towson University, from which she graduated in 1931. She taught at city elementary schools for five years and in 1936 married Charles Edward Towson, who died in September 1981. Her only child, David Towson, who lives in Bel Air, was born in 1937.