From robotic helpers to private rooms, patients at the newly expanded Acute Rehabilitation Center at St. Luke's University Health Network hospital on Ostrum Street in Fountain Hill will get first class care and rehabilitation.

The newly added 15-bed center on the fourth floor will bring to St. Luke's acute rehabilitation capacity to 31 beds. The others are on the ninth floor. The expansion of the "Centennial Wing" was started in May.

Officials on Sept. 4 showed reporters the new facility while construction workers finished last minute details to prepare for the admitting patients the next day.

"Our goal is to expand our services," said Director of Network Media Relations Denise Rader. She said the need or volume has always been there but St. Luke's has had referrals they could not admit.

The $2.3 million expansion could "bring millions for the hospital" said Director of Patient Services Keri Weintraub. The expansion will also increase the number jobs in the rehab unit from 42 to between 80 and 85.

But to the therapists who work there, "It's all about helping make people functional," said occupational therapist Brittaney Haines.

"Our goal is to get people back home," said Haines.

Haines and several other therapists, photographers and journalists watched as occupational therapist Hemali Patel demonstrated the robot teaching a "patient" to regain use of her arm.

The robot helps evaluate the patient's range of motion and in another mode, using an interactive computer monitor, encourages the patient to regain lost abilities critical to unassisted living skills such as opening a refrigerator and getting a carton of milk.

According to Patel, the machine has different levels that can accommodate different abilities.

"The Acute Rehabilitation Center is a hospital within a hospital," according to Dr. Robert Coni, chief of neurology and the medical director for the Acute Rehabilitation Center.

Doctors from all over Lehigh Valley may refer their patients to the center for therapy after brain injury, strokes, traumatic injuries, spinal cord injuries, neurological disorders and other conditions that have impaired mobility and function in the patient.

The facility also offer's Parkinson's disease rehabilitation.

"Different disciplines will work together," said occupational therapy assistant Carolyn Rice. Individualized treatment programs are developed for each patient. A treatment team is formed that may consist of a physician or rehabilitation neurologist and other specialized therapists.

The team implements the program which, for acute patients, consists of at least three hours of therapy per day, five days a week.

Michelle Cardinale, the therapy program manager, said in-patient rehab for a patient, on average, involves a stay of 12 to 14 days.

She said they offer the patient a post-hospital stay where the goal is "to get them back home."

Another feature of the new facility is a partial weight supporter that allows a patients to learn to walk again without having to support their own body weight. The new therapy wing also has a therapy gym.