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FEBRUARY 2020
Happy New Year! As the Milwaukee VA Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder Center prepare for the CARF survey in February 2020, I think the timing is perfect to share what we have accomplished in the past 3 years since our last CARF survey in 2017. To start with, CARF surveys four separate programs in our SCI Division: ASPIRE, SCI Rehab, Rehab Progress, Outpatient Medical Rehab, and Home Care.
The Milwaukee VA SCI Center has 38 beds (8 dedicated to CARF program) and provides acute rehab, acute medical admissions, and longitudinal primary care for 99% of our patients (we are the primary care physicians). There are total 4 dual board rehab physicians and 3 nurse practitioners (all certified in Wound Care) who provide the full spectrum of primary care to specialty care. VA SCI Division has 109 staff under direct supervision, with 11 staff from other divisions assigned to the SCI Division. Our services include inpatient, outpatient, home care, telemedicine, respite, and VA’s only interdisciplinary adaptive sports medicine clinic (not to be confused with adaptive sports clinic). We work out of 68,000 sq ft building, and all of the inpatient beds are ventilator capable. There are staff members that are specialty trained: 13 of 41 (32%) nurses are CRRNs, 2 LPNs Gerontology, 2 Med/Surg, 2 CNL, All MD/NPs are Battlefield Acupuncture certified, All NPs Wound certified, 2 Energy Medicine, and 4 VA Whole Health trained.
Some of the noteworthy accomplishment in the last 3 fiscal years are:
- Setting up fully functional Assistive Technology Program with clinic 3D printing. This has changed the lives of many veterans such as a homebound ALS patient who is now able to independently move around the neighborhood in his power chair.
- Consistently rank 2nd highest in nation in completing the annual exams (1st is a long-term care center on East Coast).
- Consistently have high patient satisfaction (100% in 2019) in both acute rehabilitation and home care.
- 24 Performance Improvement projects completed with 1 current project. These PI projects have made clinical impacts on care of SCI veterans as well as staff taking care of them.
- Current active research is 6 with 9 original research publications and 1 book chapter. There are currently 4 manuscript submission in process.
- Professional presentations include: 39 local/regional, 30 national, and 1 international.
- Total grants include: Research $2,310,956 and Programs (including direct VA-community partners) $719,000.
- Active in providing adaptive sports to veterans as part of their rehabilitation. Have formed and currently operate the only Adaptive Sports Medicine Clinic serving veterans from all over the country via tele-video medicine.
A major challenge we faced in the past 3 years was that many nurses have retired/transferred with 25% of new hires in the last one year. We are finally caught up on training and orientation, and the nursing staff have had a great impact in our center.
Milwaukee VA SCI/D Center continues to utilize technology and proven care practice to support the veterans with SCI.
Welcome Dr. Park
Dr. Olivia Park has joined the MCW PM&R Department as Medical Director of Froedtert Menomonee Falls inpatient rehabilitation unit, effective Jan. 22, 2020. Dr. Park graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2011, completed her internal medicine internship at Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals and then PM&R residency at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan Ability Lab). She completed a spinal cord injury fellowship at Rutgers - New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) / Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey. She recently served as attending physician and assistant clinical professor at Indiana University and SCI medical director for the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana prior to joining our department. Dr. Park is board certified in PM&R with additional board certification in Spinal Cord Injury medicine.
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Park back to MCW and look forward to her leadership and clinical care at FMFH.
Resident Graduation 2020
Thursday, June 4, 2020 | 6:00 pm | Boerner Botanic Gardens - invitation to be sent in near future
MCW Faculty and Staff Engagement Survey
The MCW Faculty and Staff Engagement Survey will be coming to you soon. The survey will be sent directly to your MCW email from the AAMC-StandPoint Surveys@aamc.org. The survey period is Feb. 11-28. All responses are anonymous and confidential.
MCW Common Read 2019-2020
As we start 2020, I invite you to join the MCW community in our common read Your Heart is the Size of your Fist.
I will host an evening of discussion at my home on Thursday evening, Feb. 27, 2020.
Look for more details to come in the next few weeks. All the best, Diane
We are pleased to welcome Meghann Sytsma, Clinical Research Coordinator II, to the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation! Meghann will be supporting the Stroke Rehabilitation Center of Southeastern Wisconsin, investigator-initiated research projects, and clinical trials in our department as well as supporting the Research Program.
Have news to share with your PM&R colleagues? We would love to hear from you for our next issue, so please email any recent publications, awards, presentations, shout-outs, etc. to Andrea Christl at achristl@mcw.edu.
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