Brain Injury Care at Home:
How One Family Gets the Help They Need to Prevent Hospitalization
Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is the term for a sudden, permanent brain injury caused by an external force, such as a car accident or fall. At least 2.8 million Americans sustain a TBI every year. Most of those individuals are treated and released from the emergency room and recover quickly with minimal problems, but for others, the injury can be serious and debilitating. TBI can impact one’s mood, behavior, sensory perception, communication, or physical and cognitive abilities.
Brain injury readmission rates
A study published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (2015) followed 30,000 people discharged from the hospital with a TBI and found they had an unexpectedly high readmission rate within the first three years of injury (36 percent were readmitted to a hospital, versus a 25 percent rate reported in previous research). The study also found that brain-injured individuals discharged with support services used fewer hospital services, which “may suggest that additional care and rehabilitation provided earlier to all people with TBI could reduce the high costs of readmission.”[i]
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The Marsellas’ story
For the Marsella family of South Jersey, TBI is just one medical diagnosis that impacts their day-to-day life. Patti and Rick’s first son, Ricky, was born with cerebral palsy (CP), a permanent disorder caused by damage to the developing brain in utero. Symptoms of CP vary widely for each individual, but for Ricky, his CP is considered severe. He is nonverbal, legally blind, unable to purposely move his body, and completely reliant on others for his care and daily activities.
Twenty years ago, when Ricky was 17, he sustained a traumatic brain injury when his wheelchair fell from a school bus. He already had been at risk of seizures because of his CP, but now with an acquired TBI, Ricky’s risk of seizures and injury has increased.
Better outcomes with home health care
It’s not uncommon for people living with a traumatic brain injury to be readmitted to the hospital for a TBI-related complication such as internal bleeding, a blood clot, or an infection. With professional home health care, though, Ricky’s complications are either prevented entirely or caught early, before they become serious. He’s never been hospitalized for a TBI-related problem.
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“Ricky requires vigilant care and attention to prevent complications and injury …”
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“Ricky lacks the safety awareness and muscle control to protect himself from injury, so we make sure he’s always protected by a safety belt when seated or padded side rails when he’s in bed,” said Maureen Baker, a Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse (CRRN) with BAYADAbility Rehab Solutions who oversees the team who cares for Ricky. BAYADAbility is the only specialized rehabilitative nursing program of its kind in home care, created in 1998 with a team of dedicated CRRNs who have diagnosis-specific training and expertise in catastrophic illnesses, disabilities, disorders like CP, and injuries like TBI.
“Ricky requires vigilant care and attention to prevent complications and injury,” Baker explained. “Professionals on his care team—who include home health aides and nurses—constantly change his position to prevent pressure ulcers, give him daily suction and respiratory therapy to prevent choking or breathing problems, provide mouth care, skin care, and nutrition, hydration, and medication administration via feeding tube, and monitor his body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate. I have no doubt that without this kind of specialized care, Ricky would end up hospitalized for serious complications.”
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About BAYADAbility Rehab Solutions
Specialized care. Better outcomes.
BAYADAbility Rehab Solutions is the first and only specialized in-home rehabilitation nursing program of its kind for people with a serious illness, injury, or disability such as ALS, MS, stroke, spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), cerebral palsy (CP), or spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
Led by a team of Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurses (CRRNs) with diagnosis-specific training and expertise, BAYADAbility delivers high-quality, proactive and preventive home health care that reduces the frequency of complications that can lead to hospital readmissions; improves health outcomes; and reduces health care costs for both patients and care providers.
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[i] Dr. Angela Colantonio, senior scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
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BAYADA specialty practices include Home Health Care,
Pediatrics, Hospice, and Habilitation.
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