The “Be Advised” podcast shines a spotlight on the field of medical rehabilitation and why it’s a critical component of health care.

Subscribe to learn about the many ways you can align your team for success by having a “rehabilitationship” with the Mary Free Bed Advisory Group. A new episode drops on the second Tuesday of each month.

Mary Free Bed also hosts a podcast called “Rehabilitationships,” which shares stories of recovery from patients and their rehabilitation teams. Click here to learn more. 

Episode 7 – Home Health and Skilled Nursing Facilities
Kiersten Cudney, administrator for Mary Free Bed Sub-Acute Rehabilitation, and Trey Kubizna, regional director and administrator for Mary Free Bed at Home, discuss how home health and skilled nursing facilities can partner with inpatient rehabilitation programs. Home care, sub-acute and skilled nursing facilities play a vital role in the post-acute continuum of care. Kiersten and Trey share how care can be well coordinated and lead to better outcomes for patients.

Episode 6 – Nursing Engagement and Education
Jeannette Pollatz,  director of Interprofessional Education at Mary Free Bed, joins the conversation to discuss nursing engagement and education. Jeannette, who also leads the Mary Free Bed Education Academy, shares her perspective on how the needs of nursing education have changed over the last several years and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the ability of some organizations to retain nurses.

Episode 5 – Align Environments and Operations
Joyal Pavey talks with Lorissa MacAllister, president and founder of Enviah Health, a health care design firm. She shares how removing barriers can improve staff success and patient satisfaction. Mary Free Bed CEO Kent Riddle joins the podcast to discuss how Enviah helped Mary Free Bed address growth.

Episode 4 – Virtual Care and Telemedicine
Jason Peoples joins the “Be Advised” podcast to discuss virtual care, telemedicine and how to accelerate the meaningful use of these mediums in acute care and acute rehabilitation. Click here for our Virtual Services brochure.

Episode 3 – Outcomes Research
Dr. Allan J. Kozlowski joins the podcast to discuss how outcomes research aligns with care transitions. Click here for our Care Transitions brochure.

Episode 2 – Care Transitions and Patient Access
The second episode of “Be Advised” features Dr. W. Christian VandenBerg,  who joins us to discuss aligning Care Transitions and Patient Access.  Click here for the Patient Access Booklet.

Episode 1 – Align for Success
 In our first episode, meet the team behind the Advisory Group, including well-known rehabilitation executive and chief strategy officer Jeff Garber. Learn how a “rehabilitationship” marries our expertise with your team’s talents. Click here to read the Advisory Services booklet.

We provide a variety of consultation services across care settings, each tailored to successfully address your specific program goals and foster positive outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Strategic partnerships and professional service agreements include:

• Rehabilitation operations
• Clinical services
• Joint venture/joint operating agreements

You’ll find more information in our Advisory Services brochure here.

Our goal is to help clients be successful and further the field of rehabilitation, from acute care hospitals and acute inpatient rehabilitation to outpatient rehabilitation, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care hospitals and home-care programs:

Inpatient

• Comprehensive Analysis
  • Program
  • Quality performance
  • Productivity
  • Bed need/Service demand
• Documentation
  • Medical necessity analysis
  • Physician education
  • Interdisciplinary education
• Coding
  • Documentation analysis
  • Coder training
• Prospective Payment System coordination
  • PPS coordinator training
  • Temporary PPS coordinator staffing
  • PPS education
• Audits and appeals
  • Navigation of the appeals process
  • Preparation of appeal documents
• Quality improvement
  • Quality reporting and program measures education and training
  • Quality and outcome tracking
• Understanding rehabilitation philosophy 
  • Leadership
  • Rehabilitation nursing
• New construction and program development
  • Space planning and design
  • Equipment purchasing
  • Specialty program development
• Accreditation and survey preparation

Outpatient

• Quality and outcome measurement
  • Performance analysis
  • Quality and outcome tracking
  • Productivity analysis
• Performance improvement
• Documentation, coding and billing
• New programs and program development
  • Space planning and design
  • Equipment purchasing
• Accreditation and survey preparation
• Audits and appeals

Ask us about our other advisory services, too:

• Physician recruitment
• Skilled nursing facility services
• Long-term care hospitals
• Care transitions
• Virtual services

Our service delivery options:

• In person – During our relationship, we find it’s beneficial to meet in person. We schedule a series of on-site visits to understand your needs and sustain results of implemented action plans. In addition to working at your organization, we’d love to host you at Mary Free Bed, so you can see examples of what we’ve implemented.
• On-site Lunch and Learns – You provide the lunch, we provide the education for your team. We offer modules for general rehabilitation topics, or we customize program content to meet your unique needs. Pre- and post-testing are available for many of the courses.
• Remote live webinars – Tailored webinars are scheduled at a time and place convenient for your team.

Learn more about partnership opportunities! Call 616.840.8258, or email advisorygroup@maryfreebed.com.

Professional Rehabilitation Nursing services from the Mary Free Bed Advisory Group are designed to build the knowledge and skills you need to inspire and grow rehabilitation nursing teams. Whether you’re learning the basics or fine-tuning your talents, the insights and resources in this program are valuable.

If you’re new to rehabilitation nursing, you’ll learn about:

• Rehabilitation nursing care delivery model
• Evidence-based rehabilitation nursing
• Personnel and resource management
• Documentation – specifically meeting CMS medical necessity criteria
• CRRN preparation and training
• CARF preparation

Experienced nursing leads will learn about:

• Emotional intelligence and building resilience in teams
• Staffing for the complex medical needs of rehabilitation patients
• Leadership practices that take you from great to outstanding
• High interest, trending topics

Give us a call at 616.840.8258, or email advisorygroup@maryfreebed.com.

Subscribe to success based on your needs. Choose between two inpatient rehabilitation packages for as short as one month or as long as two years. It’s up to you!

Either way, you receive discounted access to the Mary Free Bed Education Academy.
• Free participation in Interprofessional Grand Rounds
• Up to 50 free continuing education credits per year
• Unlimited 30% discount on courses, including on-demand courses and webinars.
• Topics include human trafficking, implicit bias training, pain management and more!
• Comprehensive Rehabilitation Nursing Course Theory & Application with nursing contact hours
• Continuing education credits for a variety of disciplines, including physicians, nurses, social workers, therapists, etc.
(Note: Conferences and symposiums aren’t included due to organizational partnerships.)

Don’t see anything that quite fits your situation?
We’re happy to discuss a customized package or additional services!
Call 616.840.8258, or email advisorygroup@maryfreebed.com.

Package 1

On-demand PPS/Rehabilitation Coding Support – Six hours per month

• Complex case discussion and advice
• Address challenging IGC assignments
• Appropriate code selection to support IGC
• GG scoring

Regulatory Question and Answers – Two hours per month

• Accreditation, regulatory changes and industry trends
• Documentation requirements
• Meeting challenging regulations

Package 2

Strategic Planning Review – Five hours per month
    Expert advice on your organization’s strategic plan. We assist with:

• Market assessments, competitor analysis
• Defining strategies that most positively impact your operations
• Ensuring follow-through for identified strategic initiatives

Patient Access – Three hours per month

• Work with your team to define strategies that improve patient access
• Special issue resolution for peer-to-peer and expedited appeals
• Share best practices that enhance patient access
• Strategies for continued stay approval
• Refine admission criteria, removing and identifying barriers to admission
• Marketing tips

Care Transitions – Three hours per month

• Work with your post-acute team to identify patients who need services sooner
• Ensure patients are moving through the system effectively and efficiently
• Share best practices and accountability metrics

On-demand PPS/Rehabilitation Coding Support – Six hours per month

• Complex case discussion and advice
• Challenging IGC assignments
• Appropriate code selection to support IGC
• GG scoring

Regulatory Question and Answers – Two hours per month

• Special issue resolution for audits, appeals
• Accreditation, regulatory changes and industry trends
• Documentation requirements
• Challenging regulations

Every relationship established by the Mary Free Bed Advisory Group begins with a comprehensive assessment of your needs and a collaborative discussion of priorities, goals and next steps. Together we create solutions, action steps and implementation plans that benefit you and your patients.

We use proven processes and protocols as templates for success:

Operations
These range from standardized admission and referral practices to care navigation and other procedures that promote quality, outcomes and operational efficiencies. The protocols are based on years of experience and process improvement. Operational performance is strategically planned, measured, analyzed and trended so robust action plans can be implemented to optimize outcomes.

Clinical Services
Our clinical protocols include but are not limited to condition-specific care pathways, rehabilitation nursing and therapeutic interventions.

Survey Readiness
Mary Free Bed has a long-standing history of successful surveys by the Joint Commission and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) including multiple specialty accreditations. Our goal is continuous survey readiness using a systematic process to ensure survey standards are not only met but integrated into everyday care delivery models.

Comprehensive Analysis Process

We utilize an in-depth, three-step methodology for our comprehensive analysis.

• Step 1: In-Depth Assessment
  We work with your team to gather pertinent information from your rehabilitation program. Data is analyzed to identify performance improvement opportunities.
• Step 2: Action Planning
  Our experts study the findings as they relate to your goals, capacity, competition and predicted rehabilitation trends. We’ll present our recommendations to your team and collaboratively create action plans.
• Step 3: Solution-Driven Implementation
  We provide support and guidance as your team implements the action plans. Expect on-site visits to reinforce the process and overcome obstacles that may impede success.

The Mary Free Bed Advisory Group is led by:

Joyal Pavey, Vice President

Joyal became part of the Mary Free Bed family in 2019, as vice president of the Mary Free Bed Advisory Group. With more than 18 years of experience in the world of acute inpatient rehabilitation, Joyal has a wealth of knowledge garnered from 15 years of experience in hospital administration.

Joyal has a successful record of programmatic growth, census development and navigating regulatory and compliance issues. She’s led Joint Commission and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities surveys, including specialty accreditations. She recently became a CARF surveyor. She has diverse experience, including inpatient rehabilitation, home health care, swing beds, skilled nursing, acute care and outpatient rehabilitation. Before Joyal joined Mary Free Bed, she served as market director of inpatient rehabilitation services for the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Sinai-Grace Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. She also was director of rehabilitation at Atlanta Medical Center, executive director for a freestanding rehabilitation hospital in northern Michigan and a manager of rehabilitation operations at Spectrum Health.

She completed a master’s degree in Business Administration at the University of North Alabama and a bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy and Gerontology from Western Michigan University.

Sherry Mullins, Regional Director of Care Transitions

Sherry has more than 25 years of experience in health care leadership primarily focused on post-acute rehabilitation services. As a regional director for the Advisory Group, she’ll help develop a well-defined care transition program and assist with expansion of Mary Free Bed’s expertise.

Before joining Mary Free Bed in September 2020, Sherry worked as the director of Rehabilitation for Tenet Health’s home office in Dallas, which involved strategic development and operations support for its 17 inpatient rehabilitation programs across the country. Previously, she was the rehabilitation and orthopedic market lead for Baptist Health System, a Tenet subsidiary, in San Antonio.

She has a record of success with strategic growth, program development, hospital operations, program implementations, team leadership and data analytics to drive market share growth as well as process improvement initiatives.

Sherry earned a master’s degree in Health Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Southwest Texas State University.

J’nise Ramsey, Regional Director of Network Care Transitions

J’nise joined the Mary Free Bed Advisory Group in September 2020, bringing more than 20 years of experience in leadership, delivery of value-based programming and athletic training. As a regional director, she’s focused on developing a well-defined care transition program and assisting with the expansion of Mary Free Bed’s expertise.

Her experience includes the successful launch and development of several Medicare Bundled Payment of Care Improvement programs and development of a well-defined continuing care network in southeast Michigan. Before joining Mary Free Bed, J’nise served as program manager of Value Based Programs for Tenet Healthcare, overseeing the Detroit market. Additionally, she was manager of the Total Joint Continuum for the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan in delivery of its Model 2 Bundled Payment for Care Improvement program.

J’nise holds a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from Baker College, a master’s degree in Sports Administration from Eastern Illinois University and a bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education from Manchester College.

Additional Advisors:
Jeff Garber
William H. Restum, PhD
Dr. Justin Riutta, MD
Dr. Robert Krug, MD

Learn more about partnership opportunities for your rehabilitation programs, and contact us today.
Call: 616.840.8258
Email: advisorygroup@maryfreebed.com