FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Texas Rehabilitation Hospital of Fort Worth, a freestanding inpatient rehabilitation hospital operated as a joint venture between Kindred Rehabilitation Services and Texas Health Resources, will begin offering a residency program for prospective Physical Medicine Rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians (physiatrists) in 2023. The hospital’s residency program received accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in October of 2021 and is currently in development.
The program will be the first of its kind located at a Kindred Rehabilitation Services-affiliated hospital and will help in building a pipeline of PM&R physicians, who often serve as medical directors responsible for leading the interdisciplinary care teams who guide patients through their recovery. Physiatrists are in demand due in part to the aging population and growing need for inpatient rehabilitation services. The supply of physiatrists, however, is somewhat limited by the fact that medical school applicants for PM&R residency programs currently outpace the positions available at settings such as Texas Rehabilitation Hospital.
“This is an exciting development for Kindred Rehabilitation Services and Fort Worth, and an innovative solution to an industry-wide challenge of growing the available pool of physiatrists in acute rehab to be medical directors and to practice in rehabilitation hospitals,” said Russ Bailey, president of Kindred Rehabilitation Services. “This program will not only help mold and train PM&R physicians, but the experience gained by integrating an academic program into one of our hospitals will be invaluable to all of our inpatient rehabilitation hospitals.”
“The growth of our physician pipeline in Fort Worth benefits the entire region,” said Joseph DeLeon, president, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital of Fort Worth and current board chair of Texas Rehabilitation Hospital of Fort Worth. “Statistics show that physicians will stay where they do their residency. This is a crucial step toward filling the pipeline of physicians who will care for aging North Texans.”
Kindred Rehabilitation Services, a business unit of LifePoint Health, currently operates 29 inpatient rehabilitation facilities across 17 states. It selected the Fort Worth hospital after working with a consultant to review the markets in which it operates and assess the residency programs available. There are no PMR residency programs currently in practice in Fort Worth.
In December of 2021, Dr. Scott Stoll, DO, PhD, was hired as the program’s director. Stoll brings exceptional clinical, academic, and administrative expertise from his more than 25 years of teaching, research, and medical practice in the Fort Worth area.
“I’m looking forward to helping to assemble our team and building a program that gives new medical school graduates an opportunity to pursue this incredible, often life-changing specialty,” said Stoll. “As our nation ages and the need for inpatient rehabilitation services grows, so does the need for high quality PM&R physicians. This program will create an outstanding environment for training and developing tomorrow’s physiatrists.”
Over the next few months, faculty and other residency program members will be hired to further design and manage the program. All graduating medical students will be able to apply for the PM&R program through the National Resident Matching Program. Upon completion of the program, participants will be board-eligible in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
“We are thrilled to bring this program to our hospital and to the larger medical community within Fort Worth,” said Jacob Daggett, CEO of Texas Rehabilitation Hospital of Fort Worth. “We intend to create a top-notch program in a city that is an attractive area for residency, and in the process develop more physiatrists to help us better meet the demand for state-of-the-art rehabilitative services.”
Candidates interested in being part of the program team – as well as institutions interested in partnering with the residency program – are invited to contact the hospital for more information.
Texas Rehabilitation Hospital of Fort Worth is a freestanding rehabilitation hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, that cares for adults recovering from conditions such as stroke, neurological disease, injury to the brain or spinal cord, and other long-term illnesses or injuries. The hospital features specialized clinical programs, an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals and state-of-the-art technologies to help those suffering from debilitating illnesses or injuries recover, regain strength and functionality, and return home. For more information about Texas Rehabilitation Hospital of Fort Worth, visit www.texasrehabhospital.com. Kindred and Texas Health Resources also partner in nearby Texas Rehabilitation Hospital of Keller.
About Texas Health Resources
Texas Health Resources is a faith-based, nonprofit health system that cares for more patients in North Texas than any other provider. With a service area that consists of 16 counties and more than 7 million people, the system is committed to providing quality, coordinated care through its Texas Health Physicians Group and 29 hospital locations under the banners of Texas Health Presbyterian, Texas Health Arlington Memorial, Texas Health Harris Methodist and Texas Health Huguley. Texas Health access points and services, ranging from acute-care hospitals and trauma centers to outpatient facilities and home health and preventive services, provide the full continuum of care for all stages of life. The system has more than 4,100 licensed hospital beds, 6,400 physicians with active staff privileges and more than 26,000 employees. For more information about Texas Health, call 1-877-THR-WELL, or visit www.TexasHealth.org.
About Kindred Rehabilitation Services
With nearly 30 stand-alone inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) across 17 states, Kindred Rehabilitation Services is a partner of choice for many major hospital systems in the creation of joint-venture operations that are industry-leading in clinical and financial outcomes. Kindred brings proven rehabilitation management and services expertise to help the nearly 30,000 patients we see each year in our specialty hospitals recover and return home quickly from any of a number of conditions, including stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, orthopedic injury, neurological conditions, amputation and trauma. Kindred Rehabilitation Services is a business unit of Brentwood, Tennessee-based LifePoint Health.
About LifePoint Health
LifePoint Health is a leader in community-based healthcare that serves patients and providers across the healthcare continuum. Driven by a mission of Making Communities Healthier, the company has a growing diversified healthcare delivery network comprised of more than 65 community hospital campuses, more than 30 rehabilitation and behavioral health hospitals and more than 170 additional sites of care, including acute rehabilitation units, outpatient centers and post-acute care facilities. Its 50,000 dedicated employees and 3,000 employed providers are leading innovations in care across 29 states. More information about LifePoint can be found at www.LifePointHealth.net.