By Matthew Keck —
U of L Health – Frazier Rehab Institute celebrated 65 years of healthcare Jan. 16. Frazier Rehab first opened their doors in 1954 under the title of Louisville Rehabilitation Center located in the basement of Louisville General Hospital.
“Frazier Rehab has had the privilege of improving the quality of life of thousands of patients throughout its rich history, and the innovations developed here and implemented at other facilities extend that ripple of impact even further,” said Cathy Spalding, chief administration officer of Frazier Rehab. “We could not be more grateful for our continued and ever-strengthening relationship with University of Louisville, which allows us to look forward to many more years of changing lives.”
The idea for Frazier Rehab was formed by Amelia Brown Frazier after she suffered serious injuries in a car accident in the late 1920s. Brown had to travel to The Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation in New York City for treatment since Louisville had no such place.
It was finally in 1954 when Brown Frazier received enough support and funding to open up what is now Frazier Rehab. Frazier Rehab moved to its current location in 1965 and was officially renamed after Brown Frazier in 1984.
“My grandmother [Amelia Brown Frazier] didn’t create the rehabilitation center as a monument to herself, but rather out of her own experiences with rehabilitative care,” said Sandra Frazier, granddaughter of Amelia Brown Frazier. “I have no doubt she would be amazed at how the Rehab Institute has grown and evolved over 65 years.”
Frazier Rehab works with multiple areas of rehabilitation, but their main focuses are on brain and spinal cord injury rehabilitation. They opened the Michael Brent Resource Center for spinal cord patients in 2010 and were selected as a Spinal Cord Injury Model System by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.
In 2013, Frazier established the EMERGE Brain Injury program that helps diagnose and treat patients with low levels of consciousness. Even more recently, they introduced a pediatric treadmill that helps children with spinal cord injuries to recover.
Frazier Rehab has partnered with U of L Health for decades and officially became part of the U of L Health family when they purchased KentuckyOne Health’s assets in November 2019.
File Photo // The Louisville Cardinal
