Regional One Health’s Extended Care Hospital is celebrating its 10th anniversary in December 2023, marking a decade of providing expert care for the community’s most critically ill patients.
The Extended Care Hospital has expanded and earned national accreditation and honors during the past 10 years.
Even more important, numerous patients have returned to their homes and loved ones thanks to the care they received.
For the past decade, a dedicated team has used their skills and resources to provide lifesaving medical care, hope, and humanity for critically ill patients.
Regional One Health’s Extended Care Hospital is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and looking ahead to a future of continued service.
“As we look at the last 10 years, it’s easy to remember why we do what we do,” said CEO Phillip Underwood. “Our vision is to be the premier long-term acute care hospital not just in Memphis, but in the United States.”
On December 1, leaders, staff and former patients gathered to share stories of a facility where compassion and courage make a difference in the lives of Mid-South families.
“We specialize in helping the sickest of the sick. They come to us in a very vulnerable state, and we bring them to a place of healing and recovery,” said Ibrahim Sultan-Ali, MD, Chief Medical Officer for the Extended Care Hospital. “To work in a place where healing takes place and to see patients go back to their communities is amazing.”
It started in 2012, when Regional One Health President and CEO Reginald Coopwood, MD was approached about opening a long-term acute care hospital on campus. “As a health care system, we have different steps that patients move through. A long-term acute care hospital filled a gap we had in managing our patients through their transitions of care,” Dr. Coopwood said.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ibrahim Sultan-Ali said, “To work in a place where healing takes place and to see patients go back to their communities is amazing.”
The facility was licensed as a 24-bed short-term acute care hospital in 2013, and the first patient was admitted on December 3 of that year.
The following August, the facility reclassified as a long-term acute care hospital; and in May of 2018 it expanded with six new beds, bringing it to its current total of 30.
In 2021 the Extended Care Hospital was accredited by the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality, a recognition of its high level of patient care, safety and outcomes. It also became the first long-term acute care hospital in Tennessee to be honored as a CIHQ Center of Excellence.
Clinical Director Robert Farmer, one of the founding leaders of the Extended Care Hospital, said as the facility has grown, it has maintained its commitment to putting patients first. “We have a family atmosphere here – this is a way of life for us. All disciplines operate as one to become the best long-term acute care hospital in our region,” he said.
While the honors and data are impressive, it is the individual patient stories that best depict the impact of the Extended Care Hospital.
John Butler was given a 3 percent chance of survival after getting sick with COVID-19. He spent 110 days in the hospital, 47 of them on a ventilator.
“A long-term acute care hospital filled a gap we had in managing our patients through their transitions of care,” said President and CEO Reginald Coopwood, MD.
Thanks to the care he received at the Extended Care Hospital, “He’s here today,” his wife Tracey said. “We have a 1-year-old granddaughter he never would have met if it weren’t for you. I’m so thankful for our family that you are all here.”
“This place will always be special to me,” John said. “I was here for so long and the thing that got me through was the compassionate people. It wasn’t just checking my fluids, it was holding my hand, talking to me, watching football with me. You have a special place in my heart.”
Lamia Hajjeh was diagnosed with COVID in 2019 and was sedated and placed on a ventilator. “For a long time, it was two steps back, and one step forward. With the help of the doctors and nurses she was able to make baby steps,” her husband Baha said. “Eventually, they were able to help her wake, help her move, help her stay on her feet. We are glad to be here and I’m glad to see my wife standing on her own feet.”
Reverend Chuck Lester spent 42 days on a ventilator in 2020 after catching COVID-19. Lester, the pastor at Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, was in the hospital for 100 days as he weaned off the ventilator and relearned to swallow and walk.
Rev. Chuck Lester, a former patient, said, “I give God praise for this staff. They put their own lives at risk to become family to me when my own family couldn’t be here.”
“I give God praise for this staff. They put their own lives at risk to become family to me when my own family couldn’t be here,” he said. “They told me, ‘If you want to walk out of here, you can do it.’ The first time, I walked four steps, and I was so disappointed. But they told me, ‘You walked, and we’re going to go from here.’ Two weeks later I walked out of this hospital.”
In 10 years, many more patients have walked out of the Extended Care Hospital and back to their loved ones, and the team looks forward to creating more miracles for Mid-South families.
“It’s an honor to be part of this awesome team – this is truly a place of hope and it is a blessing to serve our community,” said Chief Nursing Officer Angela Fenley, MSN, RN, HACP-CMS.
“We are making lives better,” added Dr. Sultan-Ali. “We have the resources to restore health, and to see that journey is why we get into medicine. We get to see the power of medicine, the power of humanity, and the power of health care.”