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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pathways, only the third specialized brain injury unit in the state of Wisconsin, has opened in Marshfield and will care for patients who have been diagnosed with brain injury.

Physician and treatment oversight will be provided by Marshfield Clinic for the 20-bed certified unit, located at Norwood Health Center, 1600 N. Chestnut Ave., Marshfield. Norwood Health Center is owned by Wood County and operated by the Wood County Unified Services Board.

Each year, 80,000 Americans experience onset of long-term disability following a brain injury and an estimated 5.3 million live with disabilities resulting from brain injuries. Pathways will help to address the need for specialized services for area residents diagnosed with brain injury.

"Marshfield Clinic is very pleased to be able to provide and coordinate medical services which this special population of patients will require,” said Edna O. DeVries, M.D., Central Division medical director, Marshfield Clinic. “Additionally, for any highly specialized care patients can't receive on site in the Traumatic Brain Injury Unit, we can tap into our subspecialty physicians on the Marshfield campus to provide needed consultation in management of patients’ care."

“I am extremely happy to see the brain injury unit opened,” said Peter Hendler, chair, Unified Services Board. “It is a natural fit for Norwood Health Center and the medical community of Marshfield and Wood County. This is the third facility in the state to operate such a unit and the only one located in central Wisconsin, to serve the greater central and northern Wisconsin area.”

Pathways offers high-quality rehabilitation and nursing care program for individuals who have suffered a severe brain injury and assessed as having ability to benefit from rehabilitation in a skilled nursing setting. Patients are anticipated to stay three to six months before returning to the community. Intensive, daily therapies include speech pathology, occupational and physical therapy, vocational training, activity, recreation, therapeutic and educational programming.

Marshfield Clinic Family Practitioner Peter C. Dalum, M.D., is the Unit’s medical director. Dalum, whose specialty is long-term care, has been with the Family Practice Department at Marshfield Clinic since 1992. He earned his medical degree from the University of Missouri Health Sciences Center, Columbia, Missouri; and completed a family practice residency at Wesley Medical Center, Wichita, Kansas. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians; American Medical Directors Association; Wisconsin Association for Medical Directors; and Wisconsin Medical Society.

Marshfield Clinic Neuropsychologist John Ehrfurth, Ph.D., who has been with Marshfield Clinic since 1988, will serve as the Unit’s treatment director. He has a special interest in traumatic brain injury. Ehrfurth earned a doctorate and completed a research residency at the University of Texas Medical School, Austin, Texas. He completed a neuropsychology fellowship at Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Portland, Oregon. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology; American Psychological Association; International Neuropsychological Society and National Academy of Neuropsychology.

Other Marshfield Clinic physicians will provide on-call service.

Rhonda Kozik, Norwood Health Center administrator, commended Marshfield Clinic administration “for assisting in developing the brain injury program.” In addition, she praised the Wood County Board chairman and Unified Services Board “for their continued support and the recognition of the importance of this specialized program to Central Wisconsin.”

For more information about Pathways, contact Lisa Lund, program director, 715-384-2188, ext. 3236; or Jamie Hummel, case manager, 715-384-2188, ext. 3219.

The Marshfield Clinic system provides patient care, research and education with more than 40 locations in northern, central and western Wisconsin, making it one of the largest comprehensive medical systems in the United States.

Norwood Health Center provides care for residents of Wood and surrounding counties and is licensed by the state of Wisconsin as a specialty hospital, nursing home, intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded and sub-acute traumatic brain injury rehabilitation program. Treatment services include a residential development disabilities program, acute psychiatric care and a skilled long-term care unit for the chronically mentally ill.