Patient Services

Inpatient Services

Rehabilitation is a dynamic process that provides comprehensive services for persons with disabilities to improve health, well-being, and attain maximum physical, social, psychological, and vocational potential for useful and productive activity. Rehabilitation services are provided as long as the client makes significant and observable gains toward achieving maximum potential for personal, social, and economic adjustment.

The Tampa VA PM&RS Inpatient Rehabilitation Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). CARF is a not-for-profit organization that accredits several types of specialized services: adult day services; assisted living; behavioral health (mental health and substance abuse); employment and community living services; and medical rehabilitation. The mission of CARF is to promote the quality, value, and optimal outcomes of services through a consultative accreditation process that centers on enhancing the lives of persons served. For more information on CARF please visit their website (a non-VA website).

Occupational Therapy Services

Occupational therapy services assess and treat individuals with

• physical illness or injury
• psychiatric or emotional disorders
• congenital learning disabilities
• developmental learning disabilities
• aging

For more information on the field of occupational therapy visit the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. website (a non-VA website).

Recreational Therapy Services

Recreation therapy services are provided to:

• enhance or restore the client's physical and/or mental functioning to the highest degree possible
• develop programs that meet assessed therapeutic leisure needs
• improve quality of life

Programs include activities for physical restoration, community re-entry, and leisure skills to enhance human dignity and self-worth.

Social Work Services

Social work services coordinate discharge planning, facilitate community referrals and serve as liaisons between families of clients and the rehabilitation team. Social workers provide client and family counseling regarding psychosocial, financial and vocational implications of disability.

Speech Pathology Services

Speech pathology services include evaluation and treatment of clients with disorders of:

• speech
• language
• voice
• cognition
• swallowing

Kinesiotherapy Services

Kinesiotherapy Services provide assessments, and preventive fitness programs to prevent regression and complications in the stable client. The treatment programs are designed to reverse or minimize debilitation complications, and enhance the functional capacity of the geriatric, and extended care population. Other special services include:

• wheelchair/seating mobility clinic
• driver training
• preservation amputation care treatment clinic (to prevent ulceration in the diabetic client)
• therapeutic pool
• basic mobility skills

Physicians/ARNPs

As an inpatient on the rehabilitation unit, the client is followed by the Rehabilitation Physician and/or an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP). Staff physicians provide medical care for clients with physical impairments and extensive variations in severity of disability. In collaboration with staff physicians, ARNPs serve as primary providers for stable clients. Rehabilitation physicians and ARNPs collaborate with the interdisciplinary team to manage the client needs.

Rehabilitation Nurses

Rehabilitation nurses provide services to prevent complications of physical disability, restore function, and help the client and family adapt to an altered lifestyle. Rehabilitation nurses focus beyond the disability and help individuals re-establish and maintain control over all aspects of their lives. This effort includes support for independent living, as well as involvement in post-hospital and community care planning.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy services provide evaluation, treatment, and instruction for people with physical disability. Assessment includes:

• gait
• functional mobility
• range of motion
• strength
• balance

For more information on the field of Physical Therapy visit the American Physical Therapy Association website (a non-VA website).

Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program

The Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program (CPRP), is an award winning, comprehensive, inpatient chronic pain treatment program established in 1988 to help veterans with chronic pain cope with their condition. Since that time we have evolved into a nationally known center for pain diagnosis, treatment, research, and education. We have been designated a VA "Clinical Program of Excellence" for pain treatment, and we are the only Center for the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) accredited inpatient pain treatment center in the VA system. We accept referrals for the diagnosis and treatment of veterans with chronic pain from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Vocational Rehabilitation

See the outpatient services listing for more information on vocational rehabilitation.

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Outpatient Services

Rehabilitation is a dynamic process that provides comprehensive services for persons with disabilities to improve health, well-being, and attain maximum physical, social, psychological, and vocational potential for useful and productive activity. Rehabilitation services are provided as long as the client makes significant and observable gains toward achieving maximum potential for personal, social, and economic adjustment.

Occupational Therapy Services

Occupational therapy services assess and treat individuals with

• physical illness or injury
• psychiatric or emotional disorders
• congenital learning disabilities
• developmental learning disabilities
• aging

Occupational therapists evaluate the client's functional ability in the area of self-care, provide training to increased independence in activities of daily living, assess the need for adaptive equipment, and assist clients to adjust to altered mental, social, and physical status.

For more information on the field of occupational therapy visit the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. website (a non-VA website).

Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation

The outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program is a multidisciplinary preventive medicine program consisting of:

• Medical Director—Board Certified Cardiologist
• Program Director—ABPTS Cardiopulmonary Clinical Specialist in Physical Therapy
• Dietitian—Registered Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator
• Psychologist—Behavioral specialist
• Social Worker—Behavioral specialist

Patients with known, or at high risk for, certain types of heart disease or other heart conditions are taken through a guided exercise program during this 12 week program. While on the program, patients and family members attend a structured seminar program designed to assist them into becoming active participants in their own health care team. Patients and family members also attend a weekly support group designed to eliminate barriers to behavior modification.

Outpatient Physical Therapy Services

Outpatient physical therapy service provide a complete assessment, development of a personalized treatment plan with measurable goals, ongoing reassessment, and client and family education for clients with physical disabilities. Physical therapy services aim to prevent and restore acute and chronic physical dysfunction and to promote the client's health and function. Other services provided include functional capacity and equipment assessments and referrals to other hospital and community-based services.

For more information about the field of physical therapy visit the American Physical Therapy Association website (a non-VA website).

Kinesiotherapy Services

Kinesiotherapy services provide assessments, and preventive fitness programs to prevent regression and complications in the stable client. Treatment programs are designed to reverse or minimize debilitation and complications, and enhance the functional capacity of the geriatric and extended care population. Other special services provided are:

• wheelchair/seating mobility clinic
• driver training
• diabetic foot care assessment
• therapeutic pool
• basic blind mobility skills
• hospital-based care

For more information about the field of kinesiotherapy please visit the American Kinesiotherapy Association website (a non-VA website).

Vocational Rehabilitation

As part of the Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Service at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Florida, we are staffed by five Vocational Rehabilitation Specialists, a Supervisory Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist, and a Program Support Clerk. A Disabled Veteran Outreach Program Representative from the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance is available on-site Tuesday through Friday from 8am to 12 noon. We also gratefully acknowledge the contribution of James "Bo" Fortner, who has provided more than 30 years of volunteer service to our program.

This program provides services to eligible veterans on either an inpatient or outpatient basis, serving an average of 290 clients per month. As one of the first in-hospital vocational rehabilitation programs in the country to seek and be awarded a three-year accreditation by CARF (the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities), our primary focus is to provide high-quality, easily accessed services to our clients. One or more Vocational Rehabilitation Specialists are assigned to the interdisciplinary treatment teams for each of the inpatient rehabilitation programs and for the outpatient ADATP (Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Program).

We provide vocational assessment, vocational evaluation, and work hardening as well as addressing return to active duty, education to and coordination for VA benefits (we have a strong partnership with the Veteran's Benefits Administration Representative stationed at this hospital) and community-based services and resources, independent living program services and/or training and/or employment as part of the following interdisciplinary treatment teams serving our active duty service members:

• Polytrauma Treatment Center (PRC)
• Polytrauma Intensive Day Treatment Program
• Polytrauma Transitional Living Program

As members of the interdisciplinary treatment teams, the Vocational Rehabilitation Specialists provide:

• comprehensive vocational evaluation
• education to available services and resources
• assistance to client in accessing services and resources
• liaison to outside agencies, organizations and funding sources for continuing care and services

Within the framework of clinical pathways and guidelines, the vocational and/or independent living needs of clients admitted to the rehabilitation programs are identified and addressed. The program also offers the full scope of services to patients admitted to other bed services in the hospital, to patients referred by any of the outpatient programs or clinics, and to clients referred by outside agencies and providers.

Further Information

For additional information regarding entrance criteria for the program or services available through the program, please contact us at 813-972-2000 x6100.

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Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center

The James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa has been named as one of four Polytrauma Care Centers in the United States to provide intensive rehabilitative care to veterans and service members who experienced severe injuries (including brain injuries) to more than one organ system. In addition, a consortium has been formed to attain funding for research in the areas of Polytrauma Blast and Traumatic Brain Injury to establish and promote best practices in the assessment and treatment of injuries resulting from blast injuries.

Admission

• For information or to schedule an evaluation, contact the Admissions and Referral Officer at (813) 972-2000 x6149.
• Veterans returning from OIF/OEF should contact their local OIF/OEF Coordinator for more information about benefits and health care enrollment. The Tampa VA's OIF/OEF coordinator is Hyram Ortiz, at 972-2000, extension 3825.

Available Programs

• Mental Health Support
• Amputee Program
• Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program
• Spinal Cord Injury and Disorders Program
• Blast Injury Outpatient Program
• Vocational Rehabilitation Program
• Transitional Rehabilitation Program
• Family Support Group

National Polytrauma System of Care

For more information on the National Polytrauma System of Care visit the VA's Polytrauma website.