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MEDICAL CENTER MOVES: Therapists move into the light

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   A transitional apartment that will allow therapists to evaluate whether patients are ready to go home and live on their own is the most exciting feature of the acute rehabilitation floor for the staff therapists at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro.
   ”That is good, especially if (patients) live alone. We want to check out if they can do it, so two days before they leave we can see if they can manage in the apartment,” said Celema Abanto, a physical therapist working with a patient in the acute rehabilitation unit. “They can make meals, wash the clothes and there is an actual bed like a real apartment. There are days when your therapy will be there, we want to see if you can move around, taking things out of the refrigerator, making stuff for yourself and seeing if they can manage.”
   Some patients will even overnight under supervision in the transitional unit, especially if they live by themselves, said Ms. Abanto. “It would be good to problem solve if they say ‘I had a hard time last night,’” she said.
   Each patient in the 17-bed unit receives three hours of therapy every day as part of their treatment.
   The therapists are excited about their fourth floor location, which affords them a view of the park across the parking lot and the water feature in front of the hospital through a wall of windows.
   ”This therapy room has windows. We’re always in the basement,” said Ms. Abanto. “Anything up here is perfect.”
   The old hospital really didn’t have a spot for acute rehabilitation, so the services were located in the old Merwick building and outpatient services were in the basement.
   ”Right now we are on the same floor so patients can actually walk over to the gym, they don’t need to be transported,” said Ms. Abanto. “It will encourage them to be more mobile, I can tell them to come for their two o’clock appointment and they can walk down to the gym.”
   Patients will be seen by physical therapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists during their stay in the hospital.