Select Specialty Hospital, which cares for individuals with specialized needs, including post-ICU patients recovering from chronic, critical illness such as infectious diseases, surgical complications and other conditions including orthopedic, wound or post-trauma, will occupy the fifth- and sixth floors at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital.
Scheduled to open March 14, the new 50-bed critical illness recovery hospital, will be available for patients requiring ongoing treatment for pulmonary conditions, neurological disorders, cardiac conditions or renal disorders.
“We also do rehab, everyday,” said John Duemmel, “We are really high on the mobility side where we want to get the patient out of bed at least twice a day – some patients, of course, cannot do that, but we try to do everything we possibly can to get them going in that direction.”
 John Duemmel is the Interim CEO of Select Specialty Hospital – West Tennessee.
“Select Specialty Hospital started about 27 years ago as a rehab patient clinic and over the 27 years, and there are now over 100 critical recovery hospitals across the United States.”
Select is located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Select Specialty Hospitals are headquartered in Mechanicsburg, PA and owns and operates Select Specialty Hospitals nationwide.
“We have 55,000 on staff across the United States in three divisions within the Select Specialty system,” Duemmel said, “We entered into a joint venture relationship in December 2021, and basically, we looked at continuous care for the patient, so when the patient is in Jackson-Madison County General Hospital – when they are ready to discharge – Â but they can’t go home, we provide the necessary rehab and anything else that patient might need to get them to the next level of care – which could be home, it could be acute rehab or it could be to another specialized facility.
“We want the patient to go home.”
Deann Thelen, CEO of Jackson-Madison County Hospital, discussed the relationship with Select and the benefits for the patient.
“This has been a long time coming,” Thelen said, “We’ve had a long (term) relationship with Select and they’ve taken care of some of our patients.”
The hospital-in-a-hospital will benefit some patients, who in the past, might have had to be transferred to facilities in Nashville or Memphis.
“How can you keep our patients close to home and still have access to a critical care recovery hospital?” Thelen said, “We landed having it right here in this facility which makes it easy access to transfer those patients and give our patients, and families and our community members a place to receive that continued care in rehabilitation and not have to leave Jackson.”
(PHOTO: From left, Mary Leddy, Vice President of Specialty Hospitals, Communications & Branding; John Duemmel, Interim CEO of Select Specialty Hospital – West Tennessee, and Amy Garner – Chief Compliance & Communications Officer – West Tennessee Healthcare)
