title: Healing and hope. A multiservice healthcare provider gives elderly patients a chance to return to the mainstream.
abstract: Responding to a mission commitment to serve the elderly, Mercy Medical, Daphne, AL, has developed a multiservice rehabilitation program that includes inpatient and outpatient care, as well as residential and home health services. Mercy Medical staff assume that even elderly patients who have suffered a catastrophic injury or illness can return to mainstream life--if they can participate in an effective medical treatment program. The Mercy Medical philosophy is to encourage patients to take an active role in their treatment programs and to stress from the beginning that patients are expected to recover. The staff also encourages patients to take risks that might speed their recovery, and the staff itself is willing to experiment with more effective ways of increasing patients' functional ability. Like most rehabilitation programs, Mercy Medical uses an interdisciplinary approach, with a physician heading a staff team that includes nurses, social workers, pharmacists, and physical, occupational, and respiratory therapists.
authors: Mercy Medical, Daphne, AL.
authors: C L
authors: CL
authors: Kondis
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000407:Alabama; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010358:Patient Participation; D011383:Progressive Patient Care; D012047:Rehabilitation Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*