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    CT Insider: Gaylord opens $4.4M physical rehabilitation training center in Wallingford

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    Gaylord opens $4.4M physical rehabilitation training center in Wallingford

    From left to right: Mayor Vincent Cervoni, state Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani and Gaylord Specialty Healthcare Medical Director Dr. David Rosenblum attend the unveiling of Gaylord's new Institute for Advanced Rehabilitation on Friday, Feb. 9, 2024

    By Christian Metzger,Staff Writer
     
    WALLINGFORD — Gaylord Speciality Healthcare unveiled a newly renovated Institute for Advanced Rehabilitation to the public Friday afternoon. 
     

    The new 10,000-square-foot area of the medical center cost $4.4 million and aims to be a state-of-the-art training center for medical professionals from across the country for new physical rehabilitation techniques. 

    The center is broken into five hubs: the Center for Education, the Milne Institute for Healthcare Innovation, the Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency program, the Office of Integrative Medicine, and the Hope Chapel. Each center is connected by meeting areas and workspaces for faculty and researchers who visit the facility. 

    According to Tara Knapp, Gaylord’s vice president of external affairs, the institute is a consolidation of several initiatives that they’ve been working on for several years and bringing them together all in one place. The space will be for research, allowing medical professionals to connect with one another across disciplines and research new methods of treatment. 

    “We are bringing together our education, our research, our wellness, our chapel, and we're putting it in an area that allows us to innovate and to coordinate and to connect with one another for the benefit of our patients,” Knapp said. 

    “By having everything centralized in a hub, it means that when people are working side by side in different disciplines, they have the opportunity to talk to one another and help elevate everyone's work," she added.

    Before the new center, Gaylord didn’t have as much dedicated space for programming and research — the Institute now concentrates all the departments in one place. Staff hope the new area will attract medical professionals, and will further establish Gaylord as a leader in physical therapy in the nation. 

    Its residency program was one of the aspects lauded by staff during the unveiling, which seeks to draw in four aspirant medical professionals to work at Gaylord under Medical Director Dr. David Rosenblum. With people already being accepted into the program, they hope those who enter the four-year program will stay at Gaylord after they finish. 

    Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, state House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, sate Rep. Mary Mushinsky, Mayor Vincent Cervoni, and others were in attendance at the ceremony. Gaylord President Sonja LaBarbera said he considered them critical partners in securing funding for the Institute project, as well as additional funding to Gaylord over the years. U.S Sen. Richard Blumenthal also received thanks, despite being unable to attend, for securing $1.2 million in funding for their residency program with DeLauro.

    All the officials spoke about the quality of the care of Gaylord, and that it was important to invest in the center to make it the premier rehab center in the state. 

    “What a vision. What a vision and foresight to innovate by expanding the facilities, programs, and opportunities, not just for patients, but for nearly 1,000 staff members that make this place run every single day,” DeLauro said.

    Many of those present had some tie to Gaylord — DeLauro’s father was treated at the facility in its earliest days back in 1942 for tuberculosis. Bysiewicz also had a personal connection with the center, as her brother was treated there in 2022 after a hit-and-run incident as he was out biking left him with broken bones in all his limbs and one leg partially amputated. According to Bysiewicz, he received great care at Gaylord and was discharged after three months in the facility.

    “That is the power of Gaylord,” said Bysiewicz said, who believed the Institute was a good investment in the future of medical professionals in the field. “To come here and to have that support and expertise truly made a remarkable difference. So, thank you.”

    LaBarbera added that with their new training and educational facilities, it will open up new avenues of research, which has expanded considerably over the last three years. 

    “It's game-changing for us. We've done all of this, we've been working on innovation, we've been working on education," LaBarbera said. "It gives us one hub and it gives us a visual signal to the community, to our patients, to our staff, that this is a priority for us. You know, putting research, innovation, education, wellness, all in one circle where everybody can collaborate and think differently. And it's away from the units so that people can come down here, dream, imagine what's next in rehab medicine. That's why we created this space."

    Gaylord is a nonprofit inpatient care center that specializes in physical therapy treatment for those suffering from spinal and brain injuries, strokes, and other conditions, in a variety of facilities across its 400-acre, 50 Gaylord Farm Road campus.