Rehab hospital to open in Mesa

Edward Gately

Aug. 9, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- HealthSouth, a national provider of inpatient rehabilitative services, will open its first hospital in the East Valley later this month in east Mesa.

HealthSouth East Valley Rehabilitation Hospital will be a 40-bed facility providing care to patients recovering from stroke and other neurological disorders, brain and spinal cord injury, amputations, and orthopedic, cardiac and pulmonary conditions. The opening is tentatively set for Aug. 20, and the facility is located on Baseline Road between Higley Road and Power Road.

The hospital will open with a small staff serving a small number of patient beds but will grow to 40 beds and then eventually expand to 60 beds to meet demand, said Julie Barth, director of marketing and admissions. HealthSouth will be hiring 130 people to staff the hospital, and hiring is ongoing, she said.

"We'll be hiring everything from housekeeping to kitchen staff, all the way to physicians, nursing and therapy," Barth said. "It's a full-running hospital, so we need front office, receptionists and different types of clinicians."

The single-story hospital will be accepting patients discharged from other hospitals, as well as physician referrals of patients already home, she said. Health-South wanted to locate a hospital in the East Valley to meet heavy demand, she said.

"It's an elderly population, and we do a lot of hip fracture and stroke, and head injury cases," Barth said. "A lot of the patients in the East Valley don't want to drive to go downtown (Phoenix) to rehab, or even to Scottsdale. They don't want to take the freeway, so this is going to offer them an opportunity to get the services that they really need close to home."

HealthSouth also has rehabilitation hospitals in Scottsdale, Glendale, Tucson and Yuma. It is currently expanding its hospitals in Scottsdale and Glendale, she said.

"The addition of this hospital will allow us to provide highquality and cost-effective inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services to more patients in Mesa and the surrounding communities," Timothy Poore, HealthSouth East Valley CEO, said in a statement

CONTACT WRITER: (480) 898-6814

or egately@evtrib.com

Now hiring

Those interested in employment opportunities at HealthSouth East Valley Rehabilitation Hospital can call (480) 567-0350.

OPENING SOON: HealthSouth will be hiring 130 people to staff its new 40-bed hospital in east Mesa. THOMAS BOGGAN, TRIBUNE

Newstex ID: KRTB-0132-37084567