We were pleased this month when the University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved the establishment of a department of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) within the College of Medicine.
Our next step in the process of creating the new department will come on August 20 when we will seek approval of the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education.
In the meantime, we are moving full speed ahead.
We have written a job description for the chair position for the PM&R Department, and we’ve retained a search firm to help us identify top candidates.
Later this summer, we hope to bring in a national expert on PM&R and have this individual pull together a complete assessment of what will be involved in getting the department up and running.
This will give our founding chair a roadmap to follow as we build the PM&R program.
Establishing a new department is no small task, and it doesn’t happen that often. The last department we added to the College of Medicine was emergency medicine in 2006.
We are excited to be adding PM&R to our college, and we think the timing is perfect for this to happen. It makes total sense when you consider the following elements:
- Omaha is underserved in physical medicine and rehabilitation services. It’s estimated 1,300 individuals each year would quality for rehabilitation in the metro area but are currently referred to nursing homes and other facilities.
- With Nebraska’s aging population, the need for high quality rehabilitative services for stroke and other age-associated conditions will continue to grow.
- UNMC/Nebraska Medicine have entered into an agreement with Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital to provide physician and academic services at the new Madonna rehabilitation and long-term care hospital being built west of Village Pointe in Omaha and scheduled to open in the fall of 2016.
- The Madonna facility at Village Pointe will have 110 beds and provide a full continuum of inpatient rehabilitation care to serve adult and pediatric patients with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, stroke and neurological diseases.
- This facility will become the primary training site for a new UNMC-supported residency program in PM&R, the first of its kind in Nebraska. There are only four other PM&R residency programs in states which border Nebraska.
- The partnership with Madonna will provide quality academic experiences for our residents, medical students and other health professionals. It will allow researchers from both institutions to collaborate and develop new research advancing the field of rehabilitation medicine.
Our goal is to have the PM&R Department up and running by fall of 2016. Much work still needs to be done, but I can assure you our commitment is strong to make this a reality. We will keep you posted as new developments occur during the process.
I’m happy to report I’m just returning from a weeklong vacation after hosting family at our house. It was excellent.
I hope all of you will be able to carve out some vacation time this summer. We all need to do it.