Rehabilitative Services
Medical Specialties
The Tenwek Rehabilitative Services department includes a number of Physiotherapists and at least two Occupational Therapists. These therapists provide both Outpatient and In Patient care to the patients of Tenwek Hospital and to the developing CTC. They also provide care to patients presenting for care at the Tenwek Bomet Annex.
Inpatient care is provided 7 days a week with a somewhat limited scope of care on the weekends. The therapy staff see a wide range of patients including patients in the NICU, Pediatrics, and Adults with a variety of medical and surgical problems. Patients coming to the Out Patient Clinic have generally but not exclusively Orthopedic problems.
On Fridays the Special Needs Clinic (SNC) meets in the therapy department. This clinic provides rehabilitative services to children with congenital or acquired disabilities. Both PT and OT services are provided to these children, who may come with their families and spend a day in the clinic. These children are provided therapy care and are fitted with assistive devices as needed.
On most Fridays the department operates a Wheelchair Delivery program. A wheelchair technician, one or more therapists, a driver and often one or more Tenwek visiting staff will take one or more wheelchairs out into the community for primarily children but occasionally an adult who needs one. The chairs are transported in a special vehicle acquired for the program and able to carry a number of chairs over the very rugged, unpaved Kenyan rural roads. The chairs are then customized in the field to fit the patient. The staff also indicate to the recipient and the family and other community visitors that may be involved that this chair is evidence of how much God loves them. The gospel is presented, the patient and family prayed over and some gospel literature is left for the family and other members of the community that might be present.
Daily Responsibilities of Visiting Therapists/Specialists
Visiting therapists and other specialists spend much of their time seeing inpatients and out patients at Tenwek. Some time may also be spent in teaching. Work on the weekends or at the Bomet Annex is optional. The workday generally starts around 0830 with a mid-morning break for tea (Chai). Lunch is generally from 1300-1400. The workday often ends around 1630 or so. Documentation is entered into the EMR. Visiting staff will be provided access to and some training in using the EMR.
Department Staff
The Physiotherapy department provides a variety of PT services including some prosthetic work. Staff work well together and are very supportive and helpful to PT volunteers who come to serve at Tenwek Hospital. They are well trained and provide effective PT care. They are also very open to learning from PT volunteers.
Occupational Therapy and Speech Language Pathology volunteers are welcome and very valuable at Tenwek, as there are no OT’s or SLP’s on the Tenwek Hospital staff at this time.
Rehabilitative Service Wish List
The department has very little need for expensive therapy equipment as space is limited and very little equipment is needed for inpatient therapy care.
A few minor pieces of equipment for the CTC would be helpful:
- Portable suction units (for mobilizing patients with chest tubes)
- Portable Pulse Oximeters
- Walking aides like Walking Frames and the like
The biggest ongoing needs are for supplies:
- Theraband
- Thermoplastic Splinting Materials
- Prefab wrist/hand splints
Educational resources for the staff:
- Good resource books
- A renewed annual subscription to an online exercise prescription program (Medbridge)
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