Morningside House celebrated the opening of a new rehabilitative unit that will help patients transition from hospital to home.
A ribbon cutting was held for the organization’s new 32-bed sub-acute care unit in the penthouse of Morningside House’s building B on Wednesday, January 25. Morningside House is located at 1000 Pelham Parkway South.
The sub-acute unit serves as an interim step as patients go from hospital to home, said Morningside House administrator Robert Bardach.
“This is a specialized unit that was built for rehabilitation,” Bardach stated. “We have ADL, Activities of Daily Living, and the facility helps patients learn how to be independent again.”
The penthouse suites includes modern amenities like cable-ready television and wi-fi access, as well as a community kitchen that helps patients get used to preparing meals for themselves, and a lot of single rooms, Bardach said.
The subacute rehabilitative unit features “on floor dinning”, where hot food is prepared for the patients and then brought up and plated on the floor before being served, Bardach stated.
The penthouse floor was completely renovated and updated, said Thomas Wilder of the facilities department of Morningside House. It was a large effort that required numerous contractors, he said.
One of the first patients to use the new facility was Felix Celestino, 71, of Barker Avenue. He had heard about the unit from his daughter, and received physical and occupational therapy there after he had open heart surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine on Thursday, January 5.
The staff is leading him through exercises seven days a week that will help him regain his strength, Celestino said. These exercises include stair climbing and light weight lifting, and he went from being in a wheelchair to walking with a cane in about 10 days, Celestino said.
“I like it here because they are nice people and I know the staff, who have taken care of me in a right way,” Celestino stated. “This is close to my home, and my family who come to visit every day.”
