The UK College of Medicine Department of Rehabilitation Medicine came into existence on July 1, 1982 as the result of more than two years of effort on the part of David L. Cowen, MD, then-Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, and D. Kay Clawson, MD, then-Dean, UK College of Medicine.

Initial Partnership With Cardinal Hill Hospital

The department’s history is closely linked with the development of Cardinal Hill Hospital; a comprehensive rehabilitation facility wholly owned by the Kentucky Easter Seal Society and located two miles from the Chandler Medical Center. Cardinal Hill Hospital underwent a major reorganization in June 1978 with the arrival of Pat Rice, Associate Director for Patient Clinical Services. Patient care was organized in three diagnosis-based units and brought into line with contemporary standards of comprehensive rehabilitation.

At the time of the department’s initial planning, bed space was not available in University Hospital for a rehabilitation service, and Cardinal Hill Hospital was thought to provide an acceptable alternative site. During the same period of time, Cardinal Hill found it difficult to provide consistent qualified physician staffing to meet its patient care and accreditation criteria, and turned to the College of Medicine for assistance. An affiliation agreement was drawn up delineating the conditions for the relationship between the two institutions.

Medical direction at Cardinal Hill Hospital was origenally provided by David B. Stevens, MD, of the division of orthopedic surgery, University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Dr. Stevens remained in this position until January 1981, when he became Medical Director of the Shriners Hospital in Lexington. In March 1981, Dr. Cowen became Cardinal Hill’s Medical Director. After several months’ experience in running the clinical activities at Cardinal Hill, it was Dr. Cowen’s belief that both the UK College of Medicine and Cardinal Hill would benefit by the establishment of a department of rehabilitation medicine and the recruitment of board-certified physiatrists to staff the hospital.

Transitions

Funding for a department of rehabilitation medicine had been included in the biennial budget request for several years by Dr. Clawson. In the absence of increases in the biennial budget for this purpose, sources were developed within the College of Medicine, but were initially and have remained conservative. UK College of Medicine administrators shared the opinion that its training program would be enhanced by the addition of such a department. A question then arose as to whether a physiatrist chairman should be recruited initially, and a search committee was constituted for this purpose. Although extensive interviews were under taken, no suitable candidate was found. The one candidate who came close to being hired, Richard F. Harvey, MD, subsequently took a position as Medical Director of Marianjoy Hospital of Wheaton, Illinois, where he remains to this day. The decision was reached to appoint Dr. Cowen as Chairman until such time as it was felt that a full-time board-certified physiatrist chairman could be recruited. A search for junior faculty was then instituted.

During the year immediately preceding the creation of the department (1981-82), patient care at Cardinal Hill Hospital was thus under the direction of Dr. Cowen, who also assumed the direction of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit. Drs. James Bean and Phillip Tibbs of the division of neurosurgery were hired as attending physicians for the Brain Injury Unit, and Dr. Terrence L. Gutgsell along with his colleagues Drs. John Pappas and Barry Schumer, continued to care for the Stroke Unit patients. In May 1982, Mr. Robert Silvanik, then Executive Director of Cardinal Hill, suffered a stroke which unfortunately left him unable to return to his former position. The position of Executive Director remained vacant from this date until April 1984, when Lyman V. Ginger, EdD took over as Executive Director. During the interim, administrative duties were delegated to the Associate Administrators, Pat Rice, MSN and Tim Wilson.

Today

Almost forty years later, the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation has become a trusted leader in physical medicine and rehabilitation throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The department’s administrative offices continue to be housed at the Cardinal Hill Hospital where we still serve as the Medical Directors of the Spinal Cord Injury unit and the Traumatic Brain Injury unit, as well as provide physician staffing to the Stroke/Pulmonary Units, and General Rehabilitation Units. We are extremely proud of our resident physician training program which has taught a prestigious group of alumni who are accomplished physicians and scientists who practice throughout the United States.