If you’ve ever paid a visit to PBO Group’s Glenridge Avenue location in St. Catharines, you’ve no doubt noticed that we’re very close neighbours with the Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre. What you may not realize, however, is that the relationship that PBO Group Niagara and Niagara Wheelchairs and Seating have with the Hotel Dieu Shaver reaches far beyond our shared street address. Here are just a few of the ways the teams at PBO Group Niagara, Niagara Wheelchairs and Seating and Hotel Dieu Shaver work together to provide a world-class healthcare experience for Niagara residents.
Improved and Accelerated Rehabilitation
Whether it’s a prosthesis following an amputation, a brace to address an orthopaedic condition, or devices to improve post-stroke gait, Hotel Dieu Shaver’s rehabilitation plans for patients often rely upon the use of assistive devices. One of the benefits of the close relationship that Hotel Dieu Shaver’s rehab team has with PBO Group Niagara is that it creates a very productive feedback loop. Face-to-face conversations and consults help ensure the right solution is ordered for the patient, but that’s just the beginning. The PBO Group Niagara team is at the ready to help assess how new devices function and always available to customize them to reflect changes that may occur in the patient’s abilities over the course of rehab. This “custom-made, custom-fit and custom-adjusted” approach helps reduce the length of time it can take for patients to progress through rehabilitation.
Synergies Between Patient Care and Technology
In any field, progress happens when people answer the question, “How could this solution be even better?” Hotel Dieu Shaver’s talented team of therapists don’t just listen to the feedback they receive from their patients, they pass it on to the technical experts on the PBO Group Niagara and Niagara Wheelchairs and Seating teams to generate exciting new solutions. One great example of this comes from Hotel Dieu Shaver’s Augmented and Alternative Communication Clinic (AAC). The AAC focuses on addressing the communication needs of individuals with severe speech and/or physical impairments through communication systems. By working together, the Niagara Wheelchairs and Seating team and the ACC have created game-changing mobility solutions for patients that allow for the integration of communication technologies such as voice-to-text technology with their wheelchairs.
Co-ordinated Support
In major medical situations, a patient’s care team can involve many different players in many different locations. When people aren’t sure where to turn for support it can be confusing and frustrating. By working together on patient-focused care teams, the doctors, nurses, therapists, prosthetists and technicians at Hotel Dieu Shaver, PBO Group Niagara and Niagara Wheelchairs and Seating offer a team-based approach to care that makes each patient the star player. A great example of this relates to Osseointegration, an exciting new approach to life with a prosthesis. Until very recently, Canadian amputees who elected to pursue Osseointegration surgery had to travel to Australia for the procedure. Today, while the surgery is now offered in Canada, amputees must travel to Montreal for the surgery. Having a co-ordinated team in Niagara that provides post-Osseointegration surgery care, rehabilitation and ongoing support enhances peace of mind for these patients significantly.
These are just of the few important ways that the strong partnership between PBO Group Niagara , Niagara Wheelchairs and Seating and Hotel Dieu Shaver creates better outcomes for Niagara residents.
