Acute Rehab Transcript
Acute Rehab – L. Yates Gritton, MD Video
Announcer: Acute rehab uses therapy, medical treatment and education to help build the skills needed to get back to your life.
Visuals: Announcer is a male in a suit. He is introduced with the name “Roger Cooper – American Health Journal” in lower-third; an inset in upper right corner of screen shows clips of patients working out in rehab facility.
Announcer (V.O.): We spoke with Dr. L. Yates Gritton at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in the San Fernando Valley, and asked her who would go to an acute rehab facility.
Visuals: Dr. Gritton, is wearing a white coat and is being interviewed in a studio with a blue wall in the background; main entrance of the hospital; nurses and other staff walking down steps of the hospital.
L. Yates Gritton, MD: People who go to an acute rehabilitation unit are people that really require an interdisciplinary approach to their deficit so most commonly it would be things like stroke, or traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries. And other things that are orthopedic injuries…
Visual: Dr. Yates Gritton introduced with title “L. Yates Gritton, MD – Valley Presbyterian Hospital” in lower- third.
Gritton (V.O.): …hip fractures or multiple traumas.
V.O. visual: A female doctor and an employee are talking with Dr. Gritton near the front desk of the Valley Rehabilitation Center unit.
Announcer (V.O.): What is the primary focus of the acute rehab?
V.O. visual: Zoom in on group talking.
Gritton (V.O.): The primary focus of acute rehab is a team-oriented approach. So, the team is led by a physician, usually is with a physical medicine and rehab background.
V.O. visual: Close-up of Gritton talking with the other doctor.
Gritton: And then also the physical therapist, which focuses on the aspect of mobility, so getting in and out of bed, transfers, and walking, if able. And also the occupational therapist that focus on things we take for granted…
Visuals: Text on background includes title “Acute Rehab Team,” with “Physician,” “Physical Therapist,” and “Occupational Therapist” listed under it.
Gritton (V.O.): …dressing, bathing, hygiene, grooming. Those are some tasks in addition to upper extremity activities.
V.O. visuals: Gritton talking with a nurse and elderly male patient in a wheelchair in the rehab unit while another nurse and doctor work with a patient in the background.
Gritton: The speech therapists are very useful when we look at impairments in cognition. Also problems with dysphasia or swallowing. Another integral part of the team is the rehab nurse. So, they help carry over different tasks that the physical therapist…
Visuals: List on background is continued with “Speech Therapist,” and “Rehab Nurse.”
Gritton (V.O.): …occupational therapist, and the other therapists have focused on for the patient. So they also help with the transfers, mobility and self-care. They also play a very important part in helping maintain pain control for the patient…
V.O. visuals: Nurse standing next to patient in wheelchair while Gritton talks to him; another angle of patient talking with Gritton.
Gritton: …wound care, things that we take for granted like bowel and bladder function. Another aspect of the team is the neuropsychologist. Very often we may have patients that have adjustments to the disease process.
Visuals: List on background is continued with “Neuropsychologist.”
Gritton (V.O.): The average length of stay for the rehab patient would be about two weeks but every one is different and it really depends on their diagnosis and their functional status on admission.
V.O. visual: Nurse, patient in wheelchair and Gritton talking and interacting.
Announcer (V.O.): Often the family gets involved in the patients’ treatment.
V.O. visual: Continuation of nurse, patient in wheelchair and Gritton talking and interacting.
Gritton (V.O.): We try to encourage family involvement. As the patient gets closer towards discharge…
V.O. visual: Gritton walking through the unit with another doctor.
Gritton: …then what we do is family training, with the family, caregiver training, so that they can feel comfortable helping integrate their family member back to home.
Announcer (V.O.): Dr. Gritton talked about her patient, Chris Lazaros.
V.O. visual: Mr. Lazaros walks, unassisted, with Gritton outside of the Jean and David Fleming Health Education Center building of the hospital.
Gritton (V.O.): Mr. Lazarus is a patient that we’ve had. In January he came to stay with us on the acute rehab unit because of a stroke. His deficits had him at about a moderate assist level so he required fifty percent help…
V.O. visual: Gritton and Lazaros continue walking up the steps, approaching closer to and walking past the camera.
Gritton: …from other people for self-care tasks and for mobility tasks. He stayed with us for a little over a couple of weeks and was able to return home successfully with his family and at a level where he was performing most of the tasks.
Chris Lazaros (V.O.): I can’t speak highly enough for the department here at Valley Pres. The therapists…
V.O. visual: Gritton and Lazaros continue walking on sidewalk around the hospital’s exterior to the main front entrance.
Lazaros: …the doctors, they were just great. I mean, they showed me how to get dressed, you know, how to walk basically. On a day-to-day basis we walked up and down steps. I had therapy done daily on a timely manner.
Visual: Introduced with title “Chris Lazaros, Acute rehab patient” in lower-third.
Lazaros (V.O.): The therapists were just very nice and kind, you know, to accommodate you.
V.O. visual: Gritton talking with one of the therapists in the unit.
Lazaros: And, again, if I didn’t have this…
Lazaros (V.O.): …from them at the beginning, I just don’t know where I’d be today, really.
V.O. visual: Gritton and Lazaros continue walking toward the main front entrance.
Gritton: It does make a significant difference on the patients that we see. And, statistically, they’ve done various studies and have shown that we’ve been able to have patients return home, and return home successfully at a faster rate and then be able to stay at home if they’ve gone.
Visual: Dr. Gritton being interviewed in the studio.
End screen in black.
