Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center thrives at new site

April 24, 2002|BY RICHARD F. BELISLE

waynesboro@herald-mail.com

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - The Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center has been in its new digs at 18 N. Oller Ave. for nearly four months and patients have no trouble getting to the new address, the supervisor of the center said Tuesday.

Rick Boyer said the facility handles 150 to 180 patient visits a week and is as busy at its new location as it was at Waynesboro Hospital, where it operated for 43 years.

Officials at Summit Health, owner of Waynesboro and Chambersburg hospitals, told Easter Seals officials to move its facility out late last year. The new center opened Jan. 2.

The Easter Seals center specializes in a range of rehabilitative services, including physical, occupational and speech therapies for children and adults. Patients with back and hand problems also go to the center for treatment.

Among the center's 23 employees are physical, speech and occupational therapists and assistants, an audiologist and administrative personnel.

Boyer pointed to new equipment at the center, including a machine specifically designed for those rehabilitating from leg and knee injuries and for patients recovering from surgery.

Patients are referred to the center by physicians.

Easter Seals has been in Waynesboro for 53 years. Its patients include children with developmental disabilities, teenagers and adults with sports injuries, and seniors who have had joint replacement surgery.

It also provides aquatic therapy at the Waynesboro YMCA.

A nonprofit organization, Easter Seals provides free rehabilitative services to those who cannot afford it, Boyer said. Its income comes from patient fees, insurance payments, donations and fund-raisers.

Waynesboro Hospital moved and expanded its own physical rehabilitation services in the space Easter Seals occupied.

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