FirstHealth Center for Inpatient Rehab gets highest rehab quality honor

The staff of the FirstHealth Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation is pictured as follows: (front row from left) Eunice Locklear, Melissa Kast, Laura Davies, Darlene Johnson, TK Khampanya, Dana Mitchell, Dena Fulcomer, Darlene Valitutto, Donna Chavis, Linda Nelson, Cheryl Culver and Cherie Werfel; and (back row from left) Iris Flowers, Cindy Sayce, Kay Turner, Jean Drickamer, Pauline Desjarlais and Kim Brown.

PINEHURST – The FirstHealth Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation has received its sixth consecutive three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) for its adult inpatient rehabilitation and stroke specialty programs.

CARF is an independent, nonprofit accrediting body whose mission is to promote the quality, value and best outcomes of services through an advisory accreditation process that centers on enhancing the lives of the people served. Since its founding in 1966, CARF has established consumer-focused standards to help organizations measure and improve the quality of their programs and services.

By pursuing and achieving accreditation, the FirstHealth Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation has demonstrated that it meets international standards for quality and is committed to pursuing excellence. The recognition represents the highest level of accreditation that can be awarded to an organization and shows FirstHealth’s substantial conformity to CARF standards.

An organization receiving a three-year accreditation has put itself through a rigorous peer review process and has demonstrated to a team of surveyors during an on-site visit that its programs and services are of the highest quality and are measurable and accountable. According to Linda DeYoung, administrative director, Centers for Rehabilitation, FirstHealth received a very high number (20) of strengths in all areas as well as exemplary conformity for providing extensive resources for the personal and professional growth and development of its staff.

The FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation is part of the award-winning FirstHealth of the Carolinas health care system, which has provided inpatient rehabilitation services to the region since 1994.

The program’s latest advances include:

• A simulated village that will give patients more opportunities to regain and practice the skills they need to function as active residents in the community. Now under construction, the simulated village will add a front porch, restaurant booth, bank teller machine and grocery aisles to the program’s existing car simulator, putting green, gardening boxes and multiple-surface mobility walking track.
• Another staff member who has received rehab nursing certification.
• Pending publication of an article, “The Journal of Nursing Staff Development,” co-authored by the program’s nurse educator about the use of an e-journal club.
• A grant to provide a workbook for caregiver support of stroke patients.

“We welcome the opportunity to further acquaint you with our services and respond to your questions,” DeYoung says. “We hope you find us to be a valuable asset to the community we serve and that we are all the more valuable because of our CARF accreditation.”

For more information on the FirstHealth Center for Rehabilitation, contact an admissions coordinator at (910) 715-1660.