What’s New

Centennial Healthcare Therapist Achieves Advanced Certification in LSVT BIG^® and Vestibular Rehabilitation

Centennial Healthcare is proud to announce that Sreeja Syam, PT, DPT, AIB-VR, a dedicated physical therapist on our team, has earned advanced certifications in LSVT BIG^®and Vestibular Rehabilitation.

These certifications allow Sreeja to deliver highly specialized care for patients with movement and balance disorders. LSVT BIG^® is an evidence-based therapy designed specifically for individuals with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions. The program focuses on increasing the amplitude of movement, improving walking, balance, and daily functional activities, and helping patients regain confidence in their mobility.

Vestibular Rehabilitation is a therapy program for patients experiencing dizziness, vertigo, balance issues, or inner-ear disorders. It includes customized exercises to retrain the brain, improve stability, reduce the risk of falls, and enhance overall functional mobility.

“Sreeja’s commitment to advanced education reflects our mission to provide the highest level of personalized care,” said Jay Berger, Administrator at Centennial Healthcare. “Her expertise in these programs allows our patients to achieve meaningful improvements in movement, balance, and independence.”

Centennial Healthcare continues to prioritize cutting-edge rehabilitation services delivered by highly trained professionals, ensuring each patient receives care tailored to their unique needs.

Back on His Feet.
Back Home Where He Belongs.
Meet Mr. Montague

When Mr. Montague arrived at Centennial Healthcare in late November, he was facing a difficult road ahead. After a fall at home, he was unable to stand or walk without full assistance and needed significant help with everyday tasks most of us take for granted.

His goal was clear. Regain his strength, walk independently in the community, and safely manage the 20+ steps required to return home.

Within two months of personalized rehabilitation and skilled nursing care, Mr. Montague made remarkable progress and rebuilt his strength, improved his balance, and steadily regained his independence.

Step by step, he worked toward the life he wanted to return to.

Today, Mr. Montague is safely back home, walking on his own and managing his daily activities independently. His journey is a powerful reminder that with the right care, support, and perseverance, recovery is possible.

At Centennial Healthcare, we are proud to help our patients get back to what matters most. Home.

Noted & Quoted

Marcella Dennis came to Centennial Healthcare for wound care and physical therapy. With our Nursing and Therapy Team at her side, she made excellent progress over the course of her 3-month stay and was excited to return home independent once again!

“I feel great now, a lot stronger and healthier. I am able to do a lot more
for myself thanks to the rehab team. I actually enjoyed my time here. I was able to build great relationships with staff and fellow residents. My activity aide kept me active doing arts & crafts, decorating masks, playing bingo, listening to music, and just making my stay pleasant!”

– Marcella Dennis
Subacute Resident

Daily Highlights

Our Activities Team has been keeping our residents occupied with coffee cart visits, in-room manicures and crafts, doorway Bingo, birthday celebrations, book carts, and much more!

We’re so grateful for technology, which has helped our residents keep in touch with their loved ones while in-person visits remain unsafe.

Summer Event Recap

At Centennial, our residents have been busy creating fun summer memories . . . In July, we gathered for our festive Fourth of July Cookout Lunch with delicious food, live music and refreshing water ice. Some of our residents love to cook and got together to make red, white and blue yogurt parfaits to celebrate the good old US of A. Our Cooking Groups meet at least two or three times a month so don’t fret if you missed out – join us next time!

We kept the good times rolling with our Doo Wop Beach Party, transforming the dining room into a beachy, breezy paradise with seashells and beach balls, doo wop music,
and plenty of sunshine-themed games to give everyone a taste of summer.

Want to challenge your brain? Our residents recently participated in an all-out Trivia War and had an absolute blast. If you’re interested in activities like these or have other ideas for events you’d like to see, please let our activities staff know so that we can include your suggestions next time.

Up Close with

Resident Evelyn D. Greenlee

When it came to choosing a community that would support her throughout her recovery, Centennial Healthcare made all the difference for Evelyn Greenlee.

Growing up in Georgia, Evelyn took a teaching course in school and worked as a teacher’s assistant, eventually raising two beautiful daughters. She spent some time in Jacksonville, Florida but found the heat taxing on her health and made the switch to Philadelphia to be closer to family. When Evelyn’s health began to deteriorate, she required a pacemaker and time in rehab. However, she was not improving.

Upon a recommendation to her daughter, Evelyn was transferred to Centennial. At first, Evelyn wasn’t able to walk and needed a wheelchair to get around, relying solely on others to do everything for her. When she began therapy, she gradually progressed from one exercise to another as she started to improve and regain her strength and mobility. She practiced folding laundry and hanging things up, relearning to feed herself and using a walker to get around.

Although she no longer needs regular therapy, Evelyn still enjoys restorative care to continue building and maintaining her health. She loves that Centennial has all kinds of activities, music, trips, and a beautiful chapel on-site.

Face to Face with our

Respiratory Therapist

Jim Bundalion, our Respiratory Therapist, is the mainstay of our Respiratory Care program and onsite at Centennial Healthcare 5 days a week.

Hi Jim, what drew you to this field? Honestly, I never dreamed of becoming an RT since I never knew such a medical field existed. I was just 18 years old when I started working as an orderly in a Philadelphia hospital and I noticed a Respiratory Therapist treating a patient. That really piqued my interest. I was fascinated by the complexity of respiratory care.

How many years have you been doing this? As an RT for more than 20 years, I have worked in various hospital settings such as the ICU, PICU, ER and Recovery Room. I have been at Centennial for 2 years and I just want to say that the team here is really supportive and a pleasure to work with

Centennial Healthcare Transformed Into

A Winter Wonderland

Our Annual Prom – the highlight of the year for Centennial residents, their families and our staff – was a resounding success! We rolled out the red carpet on both our 1st and 3rd floors to accommodate all our residents, and relished the delectable menu, rich entertainment, and great prizes raffled off every 20 minutes to another lucky winner!

Proud to have many veterans call our VA contracted facility home, we take our responsibility for their wellbeing very seriously. Our veterans meet on a regular basis in our dedicated Veterans Lounge to reminisce about their army days and enjoy each other’s company. Once a month we schedule a larger-scale Veterans Group in our Dining Room featuring a special program and refreshments. At this year’s Veteran’s Day Event, cadets from Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, PA came down to share their military school experiences.

Spotlight on:

Wound Healing

Expert wound care is integral to the clinical excellence delivered at Centennial Healthcare, and it begins at the time of admission with an assessment for the presence of wounds.

Under the expert guidance of our Director of Nursing Eleanor Bullock and Assistant Director of Nursing Henry Boswell, who are both Wound Care Certified, our wound care nurses coordinate the daily wound treatment of our residents, instituting measures to prevent new wounds and to treat existing wounds. A Wound Care Physician conducts weekly rounds to do bedside debridement and monitor the more complex wounds. To accelerate healing, we have implemented strict wound care protocols and infection control – changing wound dressings frequently to maintain a clean and bacteria-free wound bed. Of utmost importance, we encourage and assist our patients to turn as needed.

Happy 100th Birthday May!

Celebrating one’s 100th birthday is a mammoth milestone – and when its Ms. May Adams – you have to pull out all the stops! This December, May enjoyed a gala party surrounded by her loving Centennial family and dear friends from the neighborhood.

Born in Philadelphia a century ago, May’s colorful life spans many states and many eras. She was raised in Florida by her West Indian mother, who made sure to instill some of her Indian spunk in her daughter. She spent years living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where she worked for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company making Camel Cigarettes. Way back when —as she likes to say—before social security even existed, she earned $7.75 a week shaking the tobacco and pulling the stems out. Other jobs she filled over the years included housework, sewing upholstery for living room and dining room sets, and being a nanny. In her later years May returned to live in the North Philly area.

A Rehab Success Story

“When I first came here I couldn’t walk or talk or feed myself. I’ve come a long way at Centennial. The therapists really got me into shape!”

Dapper in his electric blue sport shirt and flashing his signature grin, his cheery countenance brings a smile to everyone he passes. That’s Mr. Gail Fink! When he first arrived at Centennial from Kindred Hospital following a stroke, he required a trach and a feeding tube, and was unable to do anything on his own. Thanks to the intensive collaboration of our nursing, respiratory and physical therapy staff who never gave up on him, he has made tremendous strides – coming further than he ever thought he would! The staff’s bedrock faith in his recovery supported him through the grueling process of weaning and decannulation, then relearning how to walk, talk and eat on his own. Today he is trach-free and almost fully independent, and hopes to be discharged soon.

Mr. Fink worked as a secretary for a number of Philadelphia Law Firms until his early retirement. A railroad train aficionado, he had an extensive model train collection. His favorite leisure pastimes are watching the clouds (he can recognize the different formations, just ask him to show you a cumulus or stratus!) and keeping up with the news.

-Mr. Gail Fink – Resident at Centennial

At Your Service!

Meet our Patient Concierges
Khalila and Jamilah

Thoughtfulness. Connection. Caring. Individuals thrive when close connections are forged – and understanding how particularly significant personalized attention is to the convalescent is central to the difference our Patient Concierge Program makes in the lives of our residents.

Centennial’s dynamic Patient Concierge duo, Khalila Little and Jamilah Cann, put everyone at ease. Both CNAs, these two women armed with their spirited personalities and good humor greet every new patient upon admission.

On duty 5 days a week until 9 in the evening, they make frequent bedside visits throughout the day and are ever ready to get a patient anything they need – be it a new item of clothing, their favorite food from a local eatery or the daily paper. Intimately familiar with every patient in the building, as well as their family members, the two are on hand to guide them through any challenging decision, and to make sure everyone is comfortable at all times.

Flowers & The

Benefits They Bring To Our Residents

A recent study by Rutgers University indicates that flowers have a positive impact on our emotional health. Flowers are effective in boosting mood, socialization, and overall satisfaction – making floral arranging an ideal activity for seniors.

The benefits of flower arranging include:

· Sensory stimulation. The bright colors, scents, and textures of flowers delight and stimulate the senses.

· Focus and cognition. Working on a flower arrangement exercises parts of the brain responsible for spatial awareness (the ability to be aware of oneself in space) – a major cognitive function when recovering from stroke or orthopedic surgery.

· Preserving dexterity. The fine motor skills required to manipulate and place each flower gives the hands and fingers a good workout.

· Sense of accomplishment. Beyond the activity being a relaxing, low pressure way to socialize and get to know people, the beautiful end result is a very personal accomplishment one can be proud of!

Rooting for Our Team

SUPER BOWL 2018

This year’s Super Bowl was a weekend-long event at Centennial with Eagles’ pride taking center stage. The hoopla began with a pre-game Eagles’ pep rally on Friday that had our staff and residents proudly sporting green attire in support of our hometown team. The drama culminated at our Sunday night Super Bowl Party, where everyone gathered to watch the closely fought game while enjoying the traditional fare of pizza and chicken wings. The Eagles’ surprise victory left everyone euphoric!

Meet Nathaniel West

As a young man in the early 1950’s, Nathaniel enlisted in the army following in the footsteps of his father – a long-time serviceman – and joined the “Screaming Eagle” unit in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. After completing his training, he was shipped overseas to Bremerhaven, Germany in 1952. In this turbulent post World War II period, his squad was assigned to clean up the area and blow up German “pillboxes” (fortified bunkers) in the mountains. During one such mission, something exploded and Nathaniel and his squad were blown off the mountainside.

Once he fully recuperated from his injuries, Nathaniel was stationed in Bordeaux, France. As part of the “TC” (Transportation Corp), his job was to transport troops all over France in GMC’s, jeeps, trucks and weapon carriers. A few years later he returned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to get his discharge. His next move was to Northeast Philadelphia where he’s lived ever since, working first for a pipe supply company and then Caledonian Dye Works.

We salute Nathaniel for serving with great valor and pay tribute to the important contributions he made on behalf of our country’s safety.

In October 1951, the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment, which had served during the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II and the beginning of the Korean War, was disbanded. This eliminated the last lingering formal practice of segregation in the Army. Black soldiers now served in all combat service units and were involved in all major combat operations.

NOTED & QUOTED

By William Moses

“The therapy team here is very respectful & they’re great at getting everyone to where they want to be.”

William Moses, a Master Barber, was known for his golden hands and served the Baltimore community for close to two decades. He stopped working after he was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. Following a hospitalization this past summer at Temple Hospital that left him non-weight bearing, he chose to stay in his hometown of Philly for rehabilitation. He arrived at Centennial in poor spirits – on oxygen and with a boot on his foot for support. Enveloped by the love and concern of our staff, he now considers himself part of the family and always has a smile on his face and a good word to share. Having undergone intensive therapy twice a day, he is now off oxygen and can bear partial weight. Centennial’s staff and therapists have made it to Mr. Moses’ “A” list!

-William Moses – COPD Resident at Centennial

As a VA contracted facility, Centennial Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center is home to quite a few veterans who have served our country with distinction in the US Armed Forces.