After an extended period of intense planning and preparation, a partnership between Emory Healthcare and Select Medical, one of the nation's largest providers specializing in outpatient rehabilitation, inpatient rehabilitation and long-term acute care, is official. Effective July 1, 2014, the joint venture will provide teams of post-acute care specialists committed to helping each patient recover in exactly the right setting, while also offering more convenient locations for patients in Georgia.

Emory's Center for Rehabilitation Medicine, known for providing inpatient and outpatient services to patients following stroke, spinal cord injury, brain injury, musculoskeletal problems and amputation, has been renamed Emory Rehabilitation Hospital. Emory Healthcare will be the majority owner of this facility, creating the health system's seventh hospital caring for patients. Select Medical will provide management services for the hospital. Eric Garrard has been named CEO of Emory Rehabilitation Hospital, located at 1441 Clifton Road NE. The employees at Emory Rehabilitation Hospital will remain Emory Healthcare employees.

Select Medical currently has 23 outpatient clinics around metro Atlanta. To create a more seamless plan of care between inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, these clinics are also part of the joint venture. Formerly operating as Select Physical Therapy, the outpatient centers have been renamed Emory Rehabilitation Outpatient Center. Employees at these outpatient clinics are transitioning to become Emory Healthcare employees, with Select Medical managing the clinics.

In addition, as part of the joint venture Select Medical will be majority owner and manage three long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals in the greater Atlanta area, including LTAC services located at Emory Wesley Woods Hospital on Clifton Road. As a hospital entity of its own, it will operate as Select Specialty Hospital-Northeast Atlanta. Employees at this location will become Select Medical employees.

The other two long-term acute care hospitals included in the joint venture are Select Specialty Hospital – Atlanta, located at 550 Peachtree St., NE, and Regency Hospital, located at 1170 Cleveland Ave. in East Point. 

"This new partnership with Select Medical will enable us to grow our services and enhance the outstanding care we already provide to our patients," says John T. Fox, president and CEO of Emory Healthcare. "By forming a synergistic partnership, we remain focused on high-quality outcomes for patients and their families. Thank you to all of the team members who are helping to make this a smooth transition."

"The level of cooperation in this partnership, not to mention the attention we will all have on making sure each patient is treated in the appropriate setting for his or her condition represents the future of health care," says David S. Chernow, president and CEO of Select Medical. "We could not be more excited to put all this in place with a partner as well respected as Emory Healthcare. Working together, we can achieve great things for Georgia's patients."

Select Medical and Emory Healthcare have collaborated on post-acute care since 2000, when Select Medical began leasing space from Emory University Hospital Midtown on Peachtree Road for its long-term acute care hospital. Select Medical's long-term acute care hospitals are highly specialized facilities for chronic, critically ill and medically complex patients in need of additional recovery time. Select Medical leases space from larger health care systems such as Emory Healthcare for more than two-thirds of its long-term acute care hospitals.