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After patients have been discharged from therapy, they can continue their recovery with a

Whether it's inpatient or outpatient care, some local hospitals offer innovative treatment facilities for therapy and rehabilitation.

The new Regional Care Center at Medical Center East helps patients take the next step after their therapy with an exercise/fitness program.

"It's given us the opportunity to have a larger, nicer facility with better equipment," says Bill Huber, administrative director for MCE rehab. At one end of the facility is outpatient rehab, with physical therapy and occupational therapy. At the other end there's a cardiac rehab area. And in the center is an exercise area, where exercise trainers can help patients progress after they're discharged from therapy in what Huber calls a "step-down" program.

"It kind of puts together a whole seamless system for outpatient therapy," Huber says. "You're independent enough to be discharged from rehab, but still need more guidance that you would get at a typical health spa." When discharged from a typical therapy program, most patients are instructed to keep performing exercises at home, he notes, but the majority don't. "It kind of gives [the patient] a mechanism of accountability," he says.

The new facility, which opened last summer, also has given the center more capacity to take referrals from other doctors.

Baptist Montclair offers a special inpatient rehab facility called Easy Street that, while not new, is still unique to the area. One of about 70 Easy Street facilities in the country, it's the only one of its kind in the state to offer skill-specific physical therapy in a one-stop setting, according to the hospital.

Step off the elevators on the 11th floor, and you're greeted by a mural of the Birmingham skyline and a life-size replica of a city street. Patients on the 17-bed unit get to practice real-life skills, such as grocery shopping, getting into and out of a car, using an ATM, climbing stadium bleachers, negotiating porch steps, going out to eat and more.

"It looks totally different than your normal nursing unit," says Sheila Tate, PT/MS, administrative director of rehab services at Montclair. "It looks more like things they're used to seeing in their environment. It's moving a step toward going back home. We get a lot of positive feedback from it. As a therapist, your day is made when you see a patient actually do something they couldn't do before, something functional they're actually going to go back and do."

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