El Camino Health announces plans for a 52-bed acute rehab hospital in Sunnyvale

Patients discharged from El Camino Hospital with serious impairments and rehabilitation needs will soon have a new place to go. El Camino Health announced that it will be opening a new 52-bed hospital in Sunnyvale exclusively for inpatient rehab.

The new hospital marks another major expansion for El Camino Health, which has extended its reach throughout Santa Clara County and currently provides care at its Mountain View and Los Gatos campuses and across more than a dozen clinics. The 70,000-square-foot hospital is tentatively expected to open in 2024.

The rehabilitation hospital will be tailored for patients who have recently been discharged with significant impairments, particularly those suffered from traumatic incidents like orthopedic and head injuries, according to Cheryl Reinking, El Camino’s chief nursing officer. It will also be helpful for those who have suffered a stroke and need help to gain back function.

“There is a long path to making a full recovery and these facilities specialize in helping patients regain as much physical and neurological function as possible,” Reinking said.

The facility will have 52 beds with private rooms and bathrooms, designated wings for patients with orthopedic issues and for patients with stroke and other neurological conditions. It will include a therapy gym, private therapy rooms and a special room for cooking therapy — a niche occupational therapy method involving kitchen-related tasks.

Though a site has been located for the new facility, El Camino Health officials declined to disclose the address, stating it is “too early” in the process to publicly state the location.

The new hospital will be a joint venture between El Camino Health and Kindred Healthcare, a company based in Louisville, Kentucky, that runs specialty hospital facilities across the country. Kindred already runs a 30-bed acute rehabilitation unit at El Camino’s Los Gatos hospital campus. As Silicon Valley’s population increases, El Camino Health officials say there is a greater need for these kinds of rehabilitation beds, and that a freestanding hospital can go a long way toward meeting that goal.

“With the continued growth in the area, there is an increased need for local access to inpatient rehabilitation services, especially for patients who have suffered a traumatic illness and injury, which makes travel difficult,” said El Camino Health CEO Dan Woods in a statement last week.

Under the agreement, Kindred will handle the day-to-day operations of the rehabilitation hospital.

El Camino Health’s board of directors approved the joint venture last month, creating a new company in which El Camino holds 51% of the ownership interest. It will have its own board of directors with three voting members each from El Camino and Kindred — though El Camino Hospital will retain its majority of voting rights, according to the agreement.

Kindred Healthcare officials said in a statement last week that the design of the future hospital mirrors the design of other hospitals it operates elsewhere in the U.S., and that it can improve the quality of life for patients and help them either return home or step down care from an inpatient setting.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with El Camino Health,” said Russ Bailey, president of Kindred Rehabilitation Services. “Through this new joint venture partnership we are confident that Kindred’s experience operating freestanding inpatient rehabilitation hospitals — in collaboration with the highly regarded patient care services that El Camino Health provides — will improve the community’s access to high-quality, post-acute care.”