For several years, the SLP occupation has made lists of top jobs in healthcare and social services. Despite the increased attention, some people are not aware of precisely what speech-language pathologists (also known as speech therapists) do every day and why a job in SLP can be so rewarding.

Striving toward the best possible patient outcomes guides everything we do in each of our owned and managed facilities, and we are proud to share our 2014 quality measures by the numbers.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed (92-8) a permanent “Doc Fix” – officially known as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. This comes on the heels of the House passing the same bill with strong bipartisan support late last month. Now, with the President indicating he will quickly sign the measure, the bill will soon become law.

Learning to use a prosthesis takes time, great effort, strength, patience and willpower. What you will be able to do while wearing a prosthesis will depend partly on the level of your amputation. The best prosthesis in the world will never be as good as your own natural limb, but when combined with your patience and willpower, it can HELP you do whatever you want to do.

For doctors, therapists and other clinicians, the goal of care is usually quite obvious: cure what ails the patient or alleviate suffering. But sometimes, a patient’s goal for their care is not immediately clear. Dr. Mitch Kaminski, a family doctor writing for the Washington Post, learned that the treatment or answers an individual seeks can often be revealed with a simple question.

Each year, approximately 30,000–40,000 lower extremity amputations are performed in the United States. 30% of lower extremity amputations are performed above the knee (AKA), and 70% are performed below the knee (BKA). In every instance, intensive and specialized rehabilitation is required to adjust to a prosthesis and adapt in order to return to activities of daily living and the hobbies a patient enjoyed prior to surgery.

March is National Nutrition Month, a time for renewed focus on healthy eating habits that sustain us for life. Eating a well-planned, balanced mix of foods every day has many health and potential longevity benefits. Eating well may reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, bone loss, some kinds of cancer and anemia. If you already have one or more of these chronic diseases, eating well and being physically active may help you better manage them. Healthy eating may also help you reduce high blood pressure, lower high cholesterol and manage diabetes.

After discharge, there are times when our patients want to maximize the success of their rehabilitation by having continued access to the state-of-the-art equipment that helped them recover. A therapy maintenance program can be a great way for orthopedic patients to continue self-care and preserve regained function on one’s own time, under the supervision and counsel of trained therapists.

Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) recently introduced the Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act (H.R. 775) last week in support of a permanent solution to the therapy cap issue that threatens patient access to essential care.

Consistent with prior years’ budget proposals, the 2016 plan seeks to pay for some of the unrelated priorities through cuts to healthcare. Rather than pursue reimbursement cuts to fund unrelated legislative proposals, as the President’s budget appears to do, Kindred support progressive patient-centered policy development that focuses on patient need and integrated care rather than artificial caps on services.