Douglas Baer, President & CEO, Brooks Rehabilitation
July 2026 — Invest: spoke with Douglas Baer, president and CEO of Brooks Rehabilitation, about rising demand for rehabilitation services, workforce development, and technology. “Even with the exciting technologies available through AI, we believe people are the big differentiators for us,” Baer said.
How would you describe the rehabilitation landscape in Jacksonville, and what trends are shaping your work?
Demand is increasing for our services, and there are three main drivers. First, we have population growth occurring in Florida and across the Southeast. Second, we have an aging population, with people wanting to stay more active. Third, people are surviving traumas, major injuries, and illnesses that they may not have survived in the past, and they need extensive rehabilitation.
For us, that means more demand. There is also more competition.
What have been the main highlights or milestones for Brooks Rehabilitation over the past few years?
Our organization is growing. We are proud to be the top-ranked rehab hospital in Florida by U.S. News, and we are in the Top 20 nationally.
In Jacksonville, we are going to add 48 beds to our 60-bed rehab hospital at Bartram Park. That hospital has been open for four years, and we have basically been full, even with additional competition in the market. The expansion is expected to open in early 2028.
We also added beds at our Daytona hospital, which is in Halifax Health, the Level 2 trauma center there. It was a 40-bed unit, and we added 12 beds, so it is now operating with 52 beds.
We also have Helen’s House, a 39-room family housing unit for families traveling from outside the area. Many patients come here to access our specialty programs, and we are going to double the size of Helen’s House by adding another 39 rooms. It is available on a sliding scale to accommodate families that, in many cases, have been financially devastated by the major injuries and illnesses we treat, including brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, strokes, and other major surgeries.
We also signed an agreement to partner with Baptist Health to manage an 18-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit in its downtown hospital. Baptist is the largest acute care provider by market share here, and it is a great partner for us. That unit is expected to open in mid-2027.
Brooks operates more than 50 outpatient locations throughout Florida. In outpatient growth this year, we are adding 7,000 square feet to our 10,000-square-foot flagship location. That will include a specialized feeding and swallowing clinic for pediatric patients.
We will also be expanding to the West Coast this year. We will be opening a 60-bed rehabilitation hospital on Mayo Clinic’s campus in Phoenix, Arizona. We expect the first patient in late December of this year.
One of the big things with that project is making sure we can replicate the strong culture we have in Florida at our Arizona hospital. We have about 15 people so far who will move from Jacksonville to Arizona to help open that hospital, including leadership and other team members.
What trends are emerging in the labor environment, and what are your priorities around recruitment, retention, and workforce development?
Workforce is definitely our biggest challenge and opportunity. It is about making sure we not only have people, but the right people to serve the patients referred to us across inpatient, outpatient, skilled nursing, home care, and community programs.
We are trying to address that in a number of creative ways. Nursing is a high-demand area, and for us, therapy, particularly physical therapy, is also in high demand.
One program we are very proud of involves our certified nursing assistants. In the past, we offered to pay for nursing assistants to go back to nursing school, but not many people took us up on it. When we looked into it, many had a lot going on outside of work. Even though we were willing to pay for school, they could not take advantage of it.
So, we created a program where we essentially brought a nursing school on campus and worked around their schedules. We have had much greater success. We are now on our third cohort of about 15 people each, mostly nursing assistants, though some people from other areas, such as billing, have joined as well.
It fills needs for us, and it can be life-changing for them because they are essentially doubling their compensation.
We are also working closely with higher education institutions. At the University of North Florida, for example, we are helping the university double the size of its physical therapy program, both financially and with some of our team members’ resources.
There are many other things happening in the workforce area. We look at compensation models, recruiting, benefits, and areas where our teammates tell us improvements or enhancements are needed. It is our No. 1 challenge and opportunity, so we pay a lot of attention to it.
What technologies or innovations do you believe will have the biggest impact on rehabilitation?
There are two main areas of technology. One is emerging medical technology. We have a center for innovation where we regularly work with leading healthcare technology and equipment companies to help develop and test new tools that will ultimately benefit our patients.
We also use various robotic technologies. One is Cyberdyne. We partnered on this with a company from Japan. We are one of two rehabilitation providers that have this advanced technology, so patients have come from around the world to use it.
Virtual reality is another major area. We have worked with software developers to create our own virtual reality technology that can be used in therapy. Our therapists work with developers to design applications where patients can use a headset and enter a more engaging environment. That can make them more willing to work harder in therapy.
We can also capture movement data and, over time, use AI to fine-tune therapy techniques and determine what is most impactful for patients in their recovery.
We also see opportunities for artificial intelligence in support areas, particularly our revenue cycle. Another area is clinical education. We have our own therapy residency and fellowship program, so we have been building our own AI-supported clinical library using proprietary information.
On the documentation side, we are testing ambient listening with our physician practice. We are also evaluating areas such as coding and our phone system to improve efficiency and accuracy.
What are your top priorities for Brooks Rehabilitation over the next two to three years?
One priority is continuing to enhance and elevate our culture and reputation. That starts with people. Even with the exciting technologies available through AI, we believe people are the big differentiators for us. The growth projects coming online over the next few years, along with other opportunities we are working on, all need to be powered by people. That is the most important factor.
We also work closely with partners like Mayo Clinic, Baptist Health, Halifax Health, acute care hospitals and physicians. There are many opportunities we are prioritizing, and we want to make sure they continue to elevate our reputation and brand. Part of that is being able to treat the most complex patients. The patients we see are in the top 1% of complexity among all patients in the rehabilitation industry nationally.
How do Brooks’ community programs fit into that broader system of care?
Our core clinical services are essential, but our community programs are essential to help people living with disabilities.
One example is our aphasia center. Aphasia affects stroke patients and some brain injury patients, and we have one of the top aphasia centers in the country. One of our patients and his family moved here from Atlanta after he suffered a stroke so he could participate in the program.
We have similar stories regarding our adaptive sports program and our brain injury clubhouse, which is the only one in the state of Florida.
The community programs are differentiators for us, and we strongly believe in the value to our patients, so we offer most of them either free or low-cost for participants. They are part of the whole system of care for people who have suffered some kind of disability or are living with a disability.
The whole package is what differentiates us: different rehabilitation settings of care, community programs, research, and a holistic approach to helping people who have suffered major injuries or illnesses.
