Case Study: Water’s Edge Rehab & Nursing Center at Port Jefferson (July 2020)

Concierge Director: Rachel Loevner
Patient’s Name: John Z.
Patients Age: 54-years-old
Admission Date: 06/24/2020
Discharge Date: 07/10/2020
Discharged to: Home
Length of stay: 16 days
Reason for stay: Chronic respiratory failure secondary to previous Covid-19 diagnosis in hospital
How did this patient hear about Water’s Edge: Recommended by Stony Brook University Hospital


Details of Experience:
“No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It may seem hard to get to it, but you can do it. Just keep working towards it, and you’ll find the positive side of things.” When it comes to Mr. John Z., this quote fits like a glove. John is a loving husband and father to his daughters. He lives at his home with his beautiful family, including his mother, who is in their care. He works a full-time job as a manager at a local food store and enjoys spending his spare time with his family.

After getting sick, John ended up in Stony Brook Hospital with a diagnosis of Covid-19, which caused chronic respiratory failure. While he was in the hospital, he needed to receive a tracheotomy, as a result of intubation and not being able to breathe on his own. John experienced the fight of his life and spent nearly three months at Stony Brook Hospital.

Following his stay at the hospital, John was recommended to go to a sub-acute rehabilitation center. The patient and his family received a list of rehab centers from the hospital and chose Water’s Edge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at Port Jefferson, due to its close proximity to their home.

Upon arrival on June 24th, John was greeted by a number of our interdisciplinary staff at Water’s Edge. He met our admitting nurse, Anne, at the door, who escorted him to his private room. Following his admitting assessment, he was introduced to his nurse and aide, who would care for him for the evening. The next day, John was greeted by our Director of Concierge Services, recreation team, therapy team, and social services. Mr. Z. was eager to get home; he was missing his family and his life. The entire team at Water’s Edge and his family worked together to support John. Due to the current pandemic, his family was not able to come into the community to visit him. Although, as a team, we connected with the family daily and assured them that they would see him through window visits and connect with John in any way possible.

John came to Water’s Edge for rehabilitation. He arrived needing maximum assistance on all activities of daily life. Our team of therapists worked with John on his first day to create a list of goals that he would like to meet before going home. John demonstrated excellent rehabilitation potential because he was motivated to return to his prior level of function and was eager to get home back to his family.

Jayne, John’s physical therapist, worked with him on progressive resistance exercise, therapeutic exercises to facilitate the independence of self-care tasks, and mobility tasks. She also worked with him on balance training and gait training with an emphasis on stair climbing and safety performance within the community. Nichole, John’s occupational therapist, worked with him on therapeutic exercises and progressed from sitting to standing. They also worked together on gross motor coordination, and fine motor coordination to facilitate strength, coordination, and balance. John worked on his transfer training to increase task performance on self-care management techniques, including but not limited to bathing, grooming, toileting, and clothing.

John was progressing by leaps and bounds in such a short time. He continued to work extremely hard every single day. Following his meeting with his pulmonary doctor, John found out that he was able to be decannulated. The team of Water’s Edge, John, and his family came together over a telephone meeting and was able to begin discussing his discharge plan following the decannulation. After only sixteen days, John was ready to go home.

With tears in his eyes, John thanked every person in Water’s Edge for their support and assistance. John’s wife and daughters expressed extreme gratitude to the team and the progress that he made. Discharge day had arrived and with great emphasis, John walked out of Water’s Edge with nothing but the assistance of a rollator walker. John was ambitious and even had plans to return to work within the next couple of months!

Team Water’s Edge is so proud of John and wishes him nothing less than a happy, healthy future!