Outpatient Services at Shepherd Center provides comprehensive medical treatment for people with spinal cord injury, brain injury, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain on an outpatient basis.
These programs provide individualized, integrative care and may even include family members.
Listen as Emily Cade, MS, CCM,CRC,CLCP, director of Shepherd Center Outpatient Services, discusses the outpatient services available at Shepherd Center.
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Specialized, Comprehensive Outpatient Services Under One Roof
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Learn more about Outpatient Services
Emily Cade, MS, CCM
Emily Cade, MS, CCM,CRC,CLCP, is the director of Shepherd Center Outpatient Services, which includes the Multiple Sclerosis Institute, Pain Institute, Multi-Specialty Clinic, Urology Clinic, Wound Clinic, Medical Imaging Services and Nurse Call Center. She is accountable for the department’s activities and operations, providing oversight of program management activities, including business development, safe clinical services and financial growth. She was previously the program manager of the Multiple Sclerosis Institute at Shepherd Center, and before that was a case manager at Shepherd and North Fulton Regional Hospital in Atlanta. Emily earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from Mississippi State University. She holds certifications as a case manager, rehabilitation counselor and life care planner.Learn more about Outpatient Services
Transcription:
Specialized, Comprehensive Outpatient Services Under One Roof
Melanie Cole (Host): Outpatient services at Shepherd Center provides comprehensive medical treatment for people with spinal cord injury, brain injury, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain on an outpatient basis. My guest today is Emily Cade. She’s the director of Shepherd Center Outpatient Services. Welcome to the show, Emily. Tell us a little bit about what’s available on an outpatient basis for people that suffer from these various spinal cord, brain injuries, multiple sclerosis and others.
Emily Cade (Guest): Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Melanie. I will tell you that when you hear Shepherd Center a lot of times the first place people’s minds go is to our inpatient services, which we offer top notch inpatient rehabilitation for patients with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions. But the outpatient’s services we offer here at Shepherd Center include our multi-specialty clinic which is our physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors, physiatrists who treat patients with spinal cord injury, brain injury, multiple sclerosis. They really look at providing that comprehensive care for people who have a secondary condition maybe related to their initial diagnosis--that spinal cord injury where they may have spasticity due to that and need that specialized care. We also have a urology services department where we offer neurological care through our urologists for patients who might need specialized care in those areas as well due to secondary complications. Wound care clinic--we have a plastic surgeon on staff who is top notch in his field and he really does a great job working with patients who have these wounds maybe from a pressure from being in their wheelchair and is able to refer to surgery if needed and perform those surgeries as well. Those are some of the clinics we have from an outpatient spinal cord injury side. Again, our multiple sclerosis patients, brain injury patients also utilize those services. We have a multiple sclerosis institute here at Shepherd Center. It’s really one of the largest in the Southeast. It provides care for patients diagnosed with MS or a related diagnosis like maybe Devic’s Disease, neuromyelitis optica. With that clinic, we have three neurologists and three mid-level providers who provide the care there. It has a heavy research component as well as a rehab and wellness component.
Melanie: How does somebody know what services that they do need? Is there an initial consultation for outpatient services?
Emily: Many of our patients are referred from the inpatient side of Shepherd Center for the multi-specialty clinic, urology, wound care. We have a Shepherd pain institute that provides management of pain. So, some of those referrals come from our inpatient side but it’s really open to community members as well and patients travel. We have patients from all over the Southeast, really, in the different clinics from all over the country, who come here for this specialized care on an outpatient basis. So, it can be a referral from a local neurologist who wants to get the specialized care for their patient who maybe has MS. It could be a local pain doctor who says, “I really am needing someone to look at this and give some really good advice through the Shepherd Pain Institute,” or maybe a primary care physician who feels it is out of their realm of comfort trying to treat these different diagnoses and so that’s usually where we will receive our referrals.
Melanie: With outpatient services, Emily, are family members involved in helping their loved ones rehabilitate from a brain or spinal cord injury or one of these kinds of injuries that sends them to Shepherd Center?
Emily: Absolutely. You know, I think that’s where Shepherd’s roots started. It was from family and it’s something that we definitely hold true to and plays a large part in the services we provide patients. We know that in order for a patient to be successful on the outside, once they’re gone from inpatient here, that having that family support, that caregiver, that care partner support is vital. So, I think the education that you can give, not only the patient, but also the family, helps to make sure that there is that streamline effect of carryover once they’re home.
Melanie: I think that that is so important, too, and also the multi-disciplinary approach. Explain how you work with patients and get them the help that they need with all of your different team and specialists.
Emily: Sure. I think that is just where we shine from our outpatient’s services area. You know, you may have a patient who is seeing one of the neurologists in the MS Institute and they feel that the patient would maybe benefit from a neuropsychological evaluation. Say you have a patient who’s in a patient of the MS institute seeing a neurologist there for their care and the doctor feels like they may benefit from a neuropsychological evaluation. Well, we have a neuropsychologist on staff here at Shepherd Center who does that testing. So, we’re able to refer directly across the hallway for that testing. We’re able to work back and forth to get the results, maybe come up with a treatment plan maybe that treatment plan. Maybe from those results the doctor says, “You know what? I think maybe some speech therapy would be good.” Well, we have an outpatient MS speech therapist who is able to treat patients as well and then we have team meetings where the doctors are able to speak with the therapists on staff. You may have a patient who’s in the Shepherd Pain Institute and the doctor’s treating for spasticity, pain from spasticity, and maybe they feel like maybe they would benefit from seeing our multi-specialty doctors, our physiatrists over there. So, they can refer, just like I said, right next door in the same building and be able to have this conversation and see how we can work best together. The urology services may be something that’s consulted from physiatry but, again, it’s all in the same housing area. We’re able to work together to refer back and forth and keep that within the system so that all the medical records are together. It’s easier access to be able to pull the information but it’s also easier access for the patient to be able to receive those services. You know, one thing we are able to offer here is we’ve got radiology and imaging. So our patients, if the Shepherd Pain Institute doctors order an MRI or let’s say the wound care physician says that they need to have an x-ray done, that’s something that we can do here. So, that it just makes things more streamlined for the results and keeping the care going and consistent.
Melanie: Well, I think those comprehensive services, getting that specialized care and the convenience of having it all in one place is such an amazing way to go about it. Now, what about the adolescence and young adult program? Explain a little bit about the challenges of working with various injuries for adolescents and young adults.
Emily: Sure. You know, our inpatients side has specialized programs for clients and patients who are in those adolescent years and they’re able to focus on specific age important issues. You know, what’s important to someone who is 70 may not be that important to someone who is 15 or something that is important to that 15-year-old is really important, and it’s where people are in their lives. So, we’re able to kind of pull together and, again, this is one of our inpatient programs, but the teams are able to pull together and work on that age appropriate standard. When patients are referred to outpatient services, again, that’s where you’ve got specialization. You’ve got that experience of people who are used to working with clients from different age groups--the adolescents, the adults--so you’re able to take it as where they are in their life. What I love is that even if I’m an outpatient, I am able, if I’m a provider or a clinician, or a nurse in the outpatient department, I can reach out to my peers in the inpatient department and say, “Hey, I’ve got this issue. How do you work through this? What’s the advice you can give me working with adolescent patients on maybe this type of issue?” So, I think just having that broad spectrum is really able to help in keeping the services in line for what the patients are needing.
Melanie: So, in just the last minute, Emily, if you would, give us sort of a recap of the outpatient services available at Shepherd Center and why it is so vital and wonderful that they’re under one roof and it’s so comprehensive.
Emily: The outpatient services we provide at Shepherd Center include our multi-specialty clinic which is our physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors, our physiatrists who really work on the secondary conditions related to spinal cord injury, brain injury and multiple sclerosis. You know, you’re looking at your spasticity management, different issues along those lines. We also have a wound care clinic and urology clinic, upper extremity clinic where people can focus on function for patients who have had issues with upper extremities. We have our multiple sclerosis institute where we treat patients diagnosed with MS from a rehab and wellness and clinical standpoint. Then, we have the Shepherd Pain Institute which provides comprehensive pain care for patients who suffer from pain. This is just kind of the start of what we offer. Again, we have neuropsychological services here. We offer adaptive technology consultation services through our assistive technology department. We have seating and wheelchair clinics and adaptive driver services. Our post-acute services for brain and spinal cord injury are just so robust. I mean, offering the greatest outpatient therapies that you can find for these outpatients. So, just having all of these under one roof--in one area--makes for ease in transitioning between one and the other. Again, if you have a patient that’s being seen in the Shepherd Pain Institute and they’re really focusing on a lot of upper extremity pain and maybe think that surgery might even be an option, being able to refer to that upper extremity clinic to see if that’s appropriate. Again, these are doctors that know each other, work together and can consult together, keeping it streamlined. Yes, we are a medical facility, of course, but just really treating it as a family and that’s the way we look at our clinics and our programs.
Melanie: Thank you so much, Emily, for such wonderful information and for more information about the outpatient service available at Shepherd Center you can go to Shepherd.org. That’s Shepherd.org. You’re listening to Shepherd Center Radio. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Specialized, Comprehensive Outpatient Services Under One Roof
Melanie Cole (Host): Outpatient services at Shepherd Center provides comprehensive medical treatment for people with spinal cord injury, brain injury, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain on an outpatient basis. My guest today is Emily Cade. She’s the director of Shepherd Center Outpatient Services. Welcome to the show, Emily. Tell us a little bit about what’s available on an outpatient basis for people that suffer from these various spinal cord, brain injuries, multiple sclerosis and others.
Emily Cade (Guest): Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Melanie. I will tell you that when you hear Shepherd Center a lot of times the first place people’s minds go is to our inpatient services, which we offer top notch inpatient rehabilitation for patients with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions. But the outpatient’s services we offer here at Shepherd Center include our multi-specialty clinic which is our physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors, physiatrists who treat patients with spinal cord injury, brain injury, multiple sclerosis. They really look at providing that comprehensive care for people who have a secondary condition maybe related to their initial diagnosis--that spinal cord injury where they may have spasticity due to that and need that specialized care. We also have a urology services department where we offer neurological care through our urologists for patients who might need specialized care in those areas as well due to secondary complications. Wound care clinic--we have a plastic surgeon on staff who is top notch in his field and he really does a great job working with patients who have these wounds maybe from a pressure from being in their wheelchair and is able to refer to surgery if needed and perform those surgeries as well. Those are some of the clinics we have from an outpatient spinal cord injury side. Again, our multiple sclerosis patients, brain injury patients also utilize those services. We have a multiple sclerosis institute here at Shepherd Center. It’s really one of the largest in the Southeast. It provides care for patients diagnosed with MS or a related diagnosis like maybe Devic’s Disease, neuromyelitis optica. With that clinic, we have three neurologists and three mid-level providers who provide the care there. It has a heavy research component as well as a rehab and wellness component.
Melanie: How does somebody know what services that they do need? Is there an initial consultation for outpatient services?
Emily: Many of our patients are referred from the inpatient side of Shepherd Center for the multi-specialty clinic, urology, wound care. We have a Shepherd pain institute that provides management of pain. So, some of those referrals come from our inpatient side but it’s really open to community members as well and patients travel. We have patients from all over the Southeast, really, in the different clinics from all over the country, who come here for this specialized care on an outpatient basis. So, it can be a referral from a local neurologist who wants to get the specialized care for their patient who maybe has MS. It could be a local pain doctor who says, “I really am needing someone to look at this and give some really good advice through the Shepherd Pain Institute,” or maybe a primary care physician who feels it is out of their realm of comfort trying to treat these different diagnoses and so that’s usually where we will receive our referrals.
Melanie: With outpatient services, Emily, are family members involved in helping their loved ones rehabilitate from a brain or spinal cord injury or one of these kinds of injuries that sends them to Shepherd Center?
Emily: Absolutely. You know, I think that’s where Shepherd’s roots started. It was from family and it’s something that we definitely hold true to and plays a large part in the services we provide patients. We know that in order for a patient to be successful on the outside, once they’re gone from inpatient here, that having that family support, that caregiver, that care partner support is vital. So, I think the education that you can give, not only the patient, but also the family, helps to make sure that there is that streamline effect of carryover once they’re home.
Melanie: I think that that is so important, too, and also the multi-disciplinary approach. Explain how you work with patients and get them the help that they need with all of your different team and specialists.
Emily: Sure. I think that is just where we shine from our outpatient’s services area. You know, you may have a patient who is seeing one of the neurologists in the MS Institute and they feel that the patient would maybe benefit from a neuropsychological evaluation. Say you have a patient who’s in a patient of the MS institute seeing a neurologist there for their care and the doctor feels like they may benefit from a neuropsychological evaluation. Well, we have a neuropsychologist on staff here at Shepherd Center who does that testing. So, we’re able to refer directly across the hallway for that testing. We’re able to work back and forth to get the results, maybe come up with a treatment plan maybe that treatment plan. Maybe from those results the doctor says, “You know what? I think maybe some speech therapy would be good.” Well, we have an outpatient MS speech therapist who is able to treat patients as well and then we have team meetings where the doctors are able to speak with the therapists on staff. You may have a patient who’s in the Shepherd Pain Institute and the doctor’s treating for spasticity, pain from spasticity, and maybe they feel like maybe they would benefit from seeing our multi-specialty doctors, our physiatrists over there. So, they can refer, just like I said, right next door in the same building and be able to have this conversation and see how we can work best together. The urology services may be something that’s consulted from physiatry but, again, it’s all in the same housing area. We’re able to work together to refer back and forth and keep that within the system so that all the medical records are together. It’s easier access to be able to pull the information but it’s also easier access for the patient to be able to receive those services. You know, one thing we are able to offer here is we’ve got radiology and imaging. So our patients, if the Shepherd Pain Institute doctors order an MRI or let’s say the wound care physician says that they need to have an x-ray done, that’s something that we can do here. So, that it just makes things more streamlined for the results and keeping the care going and consistent.
Melanie: Well, I think those comprehensive services, getting that specialized care and the convenience of having it all in one place is such an amazing way to go about it. Now, what about the adolescence and young adult program? Explain a little bit about the challenges of working with various injuries for adolescents and young adults.
Emily: Sure. You know, our inpatients side has specialized programs for clients and patients who are in those adolescent years and they’re able to focus on specific age important issues. You know, what’s important to someone who is 70 may not be that important to someone who is 15 or something that is important to that 15-year-old is really important, and it’s where people are in their lives. So, we’re able to kind of pull together and, again, this is one of our inpatient programs, but the teams are able to pull together and work on that age appropriate standard. When patients are referred to outpatient services, again, that’s where you’ve got specialization. You’ve got that experience of people who are used to working with clients from different age groups--the adolescents, the adults--so you’re able to take it as where they are in their life. What I love is that even if I’m an outpatient, I am able, if I’m a provider or a clinician, or a nurse in the outpatient department, I can reach out to my peers in the inpatient department and say, “Hey, I’ve got this issue. How do you work through this? What’s the advice you can give me working with adolescent patients on maybe this type of issue?” So, I think just having that broad spectrum is really able to help in keeping the services in line for what the patients are needing.
Melanie: So, in just the last minute, Emily, if you would, give us sort of a recap of the outpatient services available at Shepherd Center and why it is so vital and wonderful that they’re under one roof and it’s so comprehensive.
Emily: The outpatient services we provide at Shepherd Center include our multi-specialty clinic which is our physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors, our physiatrists who really work on the secondary conditions related to spinal cord injury, brain injury and multiple sclerosis. You know, you’re looking at your spasticity management, different issues along those lines. We also have a wound care clinic and urology clinic, upper extremity clinic where people can focus on function for patients who have had issues with upper extremities. We have our multiple sclerosis institute where we treat patients diagnosed with MS from a rehab and wellness and clinical standpoint. Then, we have the Shepherd Pain Institute which provides comprehensive pain care for patients who suffer from pain. This is just kind of the start of what we offer. Again, we have neuropsychological services here. We offer adaptive technology consultation services through our assistive technology department. We have seating and wheelchair clinics and adaptive driver services. Our post-acute services for brain and spinal cord injury are just so robust. I mean, offering the greatest outpatient therapies that you can find for these outpatients. So, just having all of these under one roof--in one area--makes for ease in transitioning between one and the other. Again, if you have a patient that’s being seen in the Shepherd Pain Institute and they’re really focusing on a lot of upper extremity pain and maybe think that surgery might even be an option, being able to refer to that upper extremity clinic to see if that’s appropriate. Again, these are doctors that know each other, work together and can consult together, keeping it streamlined. Yes, we are a medical facility, of course, but just really treating it as a family and that’s the way we look at our clinics and our programs.
Melanie: Thank you so much, Emily, for such wonderful information and for more information about the outpatient service available at Shepherd Center you can go to Shepherd.org. That’s Shepherd.org. You’re listening to Shepherd Center Radio. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.