Count Adam Kafka, M.D., and Morgan LaHolt, M.D., both College of Medicine alums, as among those who applaud the new partnership between UNMC/Nebraska Medicine and Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital.
Drs. Kafka and LaHolt work at Madonna as physiatrists (that’s phys-EYEa- trists) – physicians whose specialty is physical medicine and rehabilitation. As they put it, if you’re stable but still have a way to go to recover, these are the doctors who head up the team that helps you go the rest of the way.
And it is a team, they said. Each day, physiatrists at Madonna sit down with physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, a case manager, social worker and neuropsychologist, and go over each patient’s case.
Interdisciplinary teamwork has been hailed as the future of health care, but physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) have done it for some time. The problems they work to solve call for nothing less.
“For anyone who comes in for rehabilitation, this is one of the biggest things that has ever happened to them,” Dr. LaHolt said.
That’s why Drs. Kafka and LaHolt are excited to see these services coming to Omaha – currently, an underserved area for such services.
The goal is that a new Madonna rehab and long-term care hospital at Village Pointe will serve as the primary training site for a UNMC-supported residency program in PM&R, the first in Nebraska and one of the few in the upper Midwest. UNMC also will develop a PM&R department within the College of Medicine. Since the residency program and academic department require approval of several accrediting bodies, the clinical facilities will open first.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to transform the lives of adults and children seeking rehabilitative care, as well as provide quality academic experiences for our residents, medical students and other health professionals,” said UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. Both Madonna and UNMC/Nebraska Medicine will work together to advance their clinical, teaching and research missions, as well as technology development.
Madonna already has established a long-term acute care hospital and inpatient rehab services at Nebraska Medicine-Bellevue as a transition step to the new Omaha Madonna campus, which is set to open in 2016. The new facility will serve adult and pediatric patients with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, stroke and neurological diseases.
Dr. Kafka is the physiatrist at Alexis Verzal Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln. He completed his residency a t the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. Dr. LaHolt is medical director of Madonna’s brain injury program and was chief resident at the University of Missouri – Columbia.
But now, with additional planning and approval of the appropriate accrediting bodies, the next generation of Nebraska physiatrists will have the opportunity to go through residency at UNMC