Inpatient physical rehabilitation

Your rehabilitation care team works with you to customize a plan based on your needs, incorporating medication monitoring, discharge planning and therapeutic interventions. Your team may include:

• Board-certified rehabilitation physicians
• Case managers
• Certified rehabilitation nurses
• Internal medicine physicians
• Neurologists
• Occupational therapists
• Physical therapists
• Pharmacists
• Psychologists
• Registered dietitians
• Respiratory therapists
• Speech-language pathologists
• Sports medicine specialists
• Wound care specialists

Our rehabilitation program offers private rooms, the latest technological tools and large rehabilitation pools that support a comprehensive aquatic therapy program. All of our rehabilitation facilities provide comprehensive care for neurological conditions, including strokes and orthopedic injuries.

Inpatient therapy sessions

We use advanced rehabilitative equipment and evidence-based treatments to help extend your self-sufficiency. You may participate in a minimum of three hours of therapy per day, five days per week, or the equivalent. One-on-one therapy sessions address your individual needs by focusing on:

• Coordination, balance and strength
• Functional mobility
• Gross and fine motor skills
• Self-care activities, i.e. dressing and bathing
• Speech, language and cognition
• Swallowing and eating
• Vision and perception

Part of our therapy program includes training and education for you and your caregivers to prepare you for at-home care following discharge.

Advanced rehabilitative technology and equipment

In addition to following evidence-based practices, we offer access to state-of-the-art rehabilitative equipment and technology. Our therapists are trained to use these resources to help you improve your neurological and functional performance. Please contact us for more information about how our specialty equipment can enhance recovery.

Inpatient medical care

Our board-certified physicians are on-site daily. Each of our inpatient rehabilitation facilities is located adjacent to a major medical center, meaning we have immediate access to medical specialists and a higher level of care, when needed.

Our medical care components include:

• 24-hour rehabilitation nursing care
• Laboratory and diagnostic testing
• Management of concurrent medical conditions
• Medication management and adjustments
• Pain management
• Patient and family educational opportunities
• Supervision of specialized rehabilitation treatment plan

Amputations can result from many conditions, including trauma, vascular disease, coagulation disorders and diabetes. In these cases, we take a phased approach to recovery. This allows us to follow you from initial amputation through the healing process and prosthetic training.

Our amputee rehabilitation program is led by board-certified amputee medicine physicians in Central Texas. Our amputation rehabilitation program is composed of two phases.

Phase one: postoperative and prosthetic training

Phase one is focused on helping you adapt to initial changes through wound care, mobility training and psychology services. We also provide comprehensive nursing care to help you in the healing process, such as:

• Adaptive and medical equipment recommendations
• Collaboration with prosthetist
• Diabetes education
• Discharge planning services
• Home accessibility evaluation
• Limb protection device evaluation and fitting
• Limb shaping evaluation and fitting
• Mobility training and energy conservation techniques
• Patient and family education and training
• Peer visitor program
• Postoperative wound care
• Skin care to prevent future complications

Phase two: prosthetic training

The second phase is focused on your continued recovery and mobility training with your prosthesis for everyday use. This phase includes:

• Community reintegration
• Prosthetic fitting and adjustments
• Prosthetic management education
• Skin integrity monitoring and prosthetic-wearing schedules

Our program was developed to help you or your loved one recover and thrive by providing the best comprehensive care. It is led by board-certified and fellowship-trained specialists in neurological care and rehabilitative support.

Our experienced team provides compassionate care, using evidence-based practices to help them return to a fulfilling and engaged lifestyle.

• Advanced equipment and technology
• Dedicated to supporting you in returning home to your families and the community
• Focus on maximizing independence with everyday tasks
• Individualized treatment plans with your health goals
• One-on-one therapy to help you work towards your unique goals

Our brain injury care team addresses neurological and functional deficits related to:

• Behavior management
• Bowel and bladder management
• Emotional adjustment
• Everyday self-care activities such as dressing and bathing
• Functional cognition
• Functional mobility
• Motor skills, coordination, balance and strength
• Speech/language and communication
• Swallowing
• Vision/vestibular function

Specialized interventions and treatments include:

• Body weight-supported treadmill training
• Community outings
• Community reintegration
• Communication therapy
• Computer-assisted biofeedback
• Family/caregiver training
• Formal cognitive assessment and treatment
• Functional cognitive therapy
• Functional neuromuscular electrical stimulation
• Home accessibility evaluations
• Leisure group activities
• Life skills training
• Neuroplasticity circuit training
• Sleep hygiene
• Updated therapeutic equipment and technology
• Vision and vestibular therapy

Our brain injury rehabilitation team

We draw specialists from multiple disciplines such as:

• Board-certified and fellowship-trained brain injury medicine physician
• Certified brain injury specialists
• Certified rehabilitation nurses
• Clinical social work and case management support
• Master’s and doctorate-level physical, occupational and speech therapists
• Neurological clinical specialists
• Psychology services
• Respiratory therapists

We offer a full continuum of care beginning with inpatient care that includes:

• Adaptive driving program
• Neuro outpatient program

A stroke, or cerebrovascular accident, occurs when there is an interruption in blood flow to the brain, causing damage to the tissue, which may result in neurological deficits following a stroke.

If this is your experience, we address your situation through our dedicated stroke rehabilitation program. Our stroke specialists are board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and are fellowship trained in stroke and neurological recovery.

As a result, we can help you boost your recovery as far as you can manage. Your team wants to help increase abilities such as:

• Balance and coordination
• Cognition
• Mobility
• Spasticity
• Speech and language
• Strength
• Swallowing and eating
• Vision and perception

Your therapy focuses on addressing neurological deficits and improving functional skills. In addition to specialized neurological care and speech pathology, our program provides access to the following activities:

• 6,000 steps
• Adaptive driving
• Chair yoga
• Community outings
• Constraint-induced movement therapy
• Functional cognition therapy
• Home safety evaluations
• Leisure group activities
• Neuroplasticity circuit training
• Nutrition counseling
• Outpatient neurorehabilitation services
• Stroke education classes
• Vision and vestibular therapy

Young stroke rehabilitation program

This program focuses on broad aspects of adult life and maximizes your self-reliance in developing a productive lifestyle as far as you can manage.

A SCI can result from a traumatic or nontraumatic injury and can impact your strength, sensation and function. Regardless of the cause, our program offers a highly specialized approach with the potential to extend your neurological recovery. Our services may also optimize your medical management and improve your functional independence to enhance your quality of life.

Our SCI rehabilitation program features a highly trained and experienced staff. We help you increase your sensory and motor function skills while also focusing on teaching you to be as independent as possible with everyday tasks, such as mobility, dressing and bathing.

The program and team are led by the only fellowship-trained and board-certified spinal cord injury medicine physicians in Central Texas. They are skilled in the proper management of SCI-related issues, including spasticity, wounds, pulmonary complications and bowel and bladder dysfunction. They also manage and utilize treatment modalities, including baclofen pumps and botulinum toxin injections.

We collaborate with psychologists, pulmonologists, urologists and wound care specialists to offer the following services:

• Educational opportunities to enhance medical stability and self-support upon discharge as far as possible
• Equipment needs assessment and fittings, including pressure mapping
• Home assessments and therapeutic trial home visits to assess ongoing therapeutic needs
• Individualized therapeutic treatment plans
• Injury assessment and classification
• One-on-one treatment sessions to build functional mobility

SCI medical management

Beyond paralysis and sensory loss, many issues often accompany a spinal cord injury which are not common with other rehabilitation diagnoses. Our program aims to effectively manage many unique problems, including:

• Autonomic dysfunction
• Bowel and bladder dysfunction
• Cardiovascular dysfunction
• Nervous system dysfunction
• Pulmonary dysfunction
• Sexual dysfunction
• Skin compromise
• Spasticity

To address these conditions, we ensure you are properly educated about them.

Additional SCI rehabilitation services

Once you have completed the program, we offer additional services to help you adapt to life after therapy. These services include:

• Adaptive driving program
• Continued inpatient rehabilitation after initial stay, if needed
• Outpatient therapy
• Support groups

Preparing for your loved one's return home and establishing follow-up care are crucial components of inpatient rehabilitation. To facilitate this process, your family has access to:

• Case management for discharge planning and follow-up referrals for outpatient rehabilitation and home health services
• Family education and training to ensure a safe discharge home
• Outpatient therapy services

The inpatient care team provides connections to several support groups. Many of these organizations specialize in a specific need. Our available resources include:

• Austin Amputee Support Group — This organization was founded in 1990 and meets once a month at St. David’s Rehabilitation Hospital. This group is open to the community and is active in community events, social activities and a peer visiting program.
• Brain Injury Support Group — This group meets monthly at St. David's Rehabilitation Hospital.
• Central Austin Brain Injury Support Group — This group meets monthly at St. David’s Rehabilitation Hospital and is open to the community. It is designed to provide support to individuals living with brain injury and their caregivers.
  
• Central Austin Stroke Support Group — This group meets monthly at St. David’s Rehabilitation Hospital, bringing opportunities for socialization, support, and learning about stroke and stroke recovery. We also have opportunities for “veteran” stroke survivors to mentor more recent stroke survivors. Stroke survivors, their families, friends and caregivers are welcome. A Zoom option is also available.
• Spinal Cord Injury Peer Support Group of Austin — This organization was founded in 2010 and meets once a month at St. David’s Rehabilitation Hospital. It is open to the community and designed to provide support, information, and education to those living with SCI and their loved ones.
• Still Standing Amputee Support Group — This group meets monthly at St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center and is open to the community. The group is committed to empowering amputees through peer support, education, encouragement and motivation.

For more information, please call us at (512) 544-8993.