{"id":10649,"date":"2010-03-05T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=10649"},"modified":"2010-03-11T09:48:13","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T13:48:13","slug":"nayden-clinic-gets-a-fresh-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/03\/nayden-clinic-gets-a-fresh-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Nayden Clinic Gets a Fresh Start"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Brittany<\/a>
Brittany West (on bike), a resident of Mansfield, receives physical therapy for an injured knee from Maryclaire Capetta, a physical therapist at the Nayden Rehabilitation Clinic. Photo by Janice Palmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new location, more space, and additional technology are just some of the adjustments made at the Nayden Rehabilitation Clinic to launch it as an independent health care provider in eastern Connecticut and expand its services.<\/p>\n

Until December, the clinic was affiliated with Windham Community Hospital, which was responsible for billing and administrative oversight. But now, with a significant investment by the University of Connecticut and with the state\u2019s approval, the clinic is run solely by the Neag School of Education\u2019s Department of Kinesiology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve invested more than $1 million in upgrades and renovations,\u201d says Morgan Hills, a licensed physical therapist who has been the clinic\u2019s director for six years.<\/p>\n

Last summer, the clinic moved from Dog Lane in Storrs to a newly renovated section of UConn\u2019s Human Development and Family Relations Building on Bolton Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more space to work with our patients in private or as a group, and we are equipped with new tools and technology to address our patients\u2019 needs, while offering our physical therapy and athletic training students hands-on experiences that train them in the very latest techniques in care,\u201d Hills says.<\/p>\n

\"<p>The<\/a>
The Nayden Clinic is now located in the Human Development and Family Relations Building. Photo by Frank Dahlmeyer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new location near the Hale Hotel and its pool, has enabled the Nayden Clinic to offer an aquatic rehab program and the Arthritis Foundation\u2019s aquatic exercise program.<\/p>\n

At the clinic, five large rooms are set aside for private patient care. Two gym rooms are large enough for exercise and treatment requiring lots of open space. A wound care room is equipped to handle a variety of wound types, including the non-healing kind related to diabetes and infection wounds brought about by trauma. A recently purchased three-dimensional mobilization table enables special treatment techniques for the spine, allowing isolated motion of the head, trunk, and legs.<\/p>\n

Orthopedics was the idea behind the creation of the first clinic in 1998: then-Dean of Allied Health Joseph Smey set aside 600 square feet in Koons Hall and created a partnership with Windham Hospital for, as Hills puts it, \u201ca little ortho clinic to teach orthopedics to physical therapy students.\u201d<\/p>\n

In two years, the clinic outgrew the space. A gift from UConn Board of Trustees member Denis Nayden and his wife, Britta, enabled the clinic to move into a building on Dog Lane. But it wasn\u2019t long before a growing list of patients and the need for additional staff had the clinic thinking about an even newer, bigger home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2006, we put together a five-year business plan that showed there was a market here,\u201d Hills says, \u201cand it suggested we look beyond orthopedics, to wound care, to neurological rehabilitation, and to fulfilling our other missions of research and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a real-time, integrated education for our students,\u201d he adds. \u201cIn this new facility, we\u2019re instilling in them the desire to ask clinical questions and go answer them. That improves their decision-making ability and the quality of the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new electronic record-keeping system, the Allscripts EMR<\/em>, gives the clinic a more simplified billing process and a more efficient revenue stream; and Neag School researchers will benefit as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe database allows us to configure clinical documentation in a way that ensures best practice and utilizes clinical information for research purposes,\u201d Hills says. \u201cThis really gives us a chance to be entrepreneurial and helps us differentiate ourselves from our peer institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<p>Physical<\/a>
Physical therapist Laurie Devaney demonstrates the Nayden Rehabilitation Clinic's new three-dimensional mobilization table that enables special treatment techniques for the spine. Photo by Janice Palmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Expanding the Nayden Clinic\u2019s role in clinical training and research was a key component in the recent merger of the physical therapy and kinesiology departments. Their programs maintain a long, distinguished history of outstanding laboratory research, says Craig Denegar, head of the physical therapy department, but until now, they\u2019d never had the opportunity to conduct bench-to-bedside research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to see first-hand how findings in a lab affect patients in real life,\u201d Denegar says. \u201cWe will be able to investigate the efficacy of our therapy in a controlled environment. With patient data we can also investigate the effectiveness of our work in a real world setting, and that\u2019s exciting to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other plans for the clinic include expanding services for neurological rehabilitation; stroke therapy; and potentially adding occupational and speech therapy \u2013 in short, the creation of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation center.<\/p>\n

The Nayden Rehabilitation Clinic is open to the UConn community and those from surrounding towns. For more information, go to the clinic’s website<\/a> or call 860-486-8080.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patients, students, and researchers benefit from the rehab clinic’s new site and expanded services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-10649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 10:40:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10649"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10853,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10649\/revisions\/10853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10649"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=10649"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}