Success Story: Mobility Park

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Mobility Park

We met the challenge!

Thanks to the generosity of our donors in 2011, Sutter Lakeside Hospital Foundation met Sutter Health's matching grant challenge to fundraise $220,000 for a new Mobility Park.

The Mobility Park will give patients an environment in which to safely re-learn everyday skills such as walking on curbs, stairways and slippery or uneven surfaces; entering and exiting an automobile; using common tools such as cleaning and gardening tools; and using exercise stations for strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness training.

Project’s mission

The Mobility Park will provide patients with a higher level of rehabilitation care beyond the normal clinic or hospital setting and equipment, where the goal is to prepare them not only physically, but psychologically for the challenges lying ahead once they resume life at home.

The Park will serve to mitigate re-injury and prolonged healing by simulating surfaces at home and in the community. Beyond focusing on first steps, the idea is support patients as they continue to step back into ‘real world’ activities.

Mobility Park rationale

Sutter Lakeside Hospital Rehabilitation Department is recognized as the leader in rehabilitation services in Lake County, offering over 65 years of experience with inpatient, outpatient and extended medical care. Our patients include those recovering from stroke or acute trauma, to people with amputation and pulmonary dysfunction, as well as brain and spinal cord injuries. Serving nearly 6,000 patients annually, more than 85% could utilize and benefit from the services available at the Mobility Park. The nearest program of its kind is located nearly 3 hours of driving time away, at the Davies Campus of California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Mobility Park plan

The Rehabilitation Mobility Park will be a landscaped and covered environment with varying surfaces and grades, housed at the Sutter Lakeside Hospital campus. A mobility pathway will allow patients to train on gravel, pavement, dirt, grass and other surfaces. Stairs, ramps, curbs, hills, and simulated public transportation thresholds would be incorporated into the Park.

It is projected that the Mobility Park will serve 15 -20 patients per day of a wide variety of ages, and be an effective form of transitional rehabilitation for injury/illness recovery, including total joint replacements, neurological injuries (stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease), balance disorders, trauma related injuries (traumatic brain injury, fractures/sprains) and sensory depriving disorders such as neuropathy and spinal cord injuries.

For more information

For more information on Sutter Lakeside Hospital's Mobility Park, please contact:

Penny Vanderwolk
Director of Development
Phone: (707) 576-4009
Email: vanderp@sutterhealth.org

Sutter Lakeside Hospital Foundation
5176 Hill Road East
Lakeport, California 95453
Web site: sutterlakeside.org

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