Rehabilitation is a type of specialized care that helps you recover from an illness or injury. The main goal of rehabilitation is to help you get back on your feet as quickly as possible, but rehabilitation also helps you optimize the outcome of the recovery process so that you are as well as possible too.
The care you receive from a hospital can save your life, especially if you have suffered a stroke. Hospital care is also exceptional for hip replacements and other surgeries. Unfortunately, you can only stay in the hospital for a certain length of time, and sometimes you may need to leave the hospital before you have fully recovered enough from an illness, injury or surgery to take care of yourself.
Recovery from some illnesses and injuries can continue for days, weeks or even months after discharge from the hospital. The average length of stay in a hospital for a stroke is 5.3 days, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), yet most of the recovery from a stroke happens over the course of three to four months. Rehabilitation services bridge this gap between hospitalization and independent living.
Conditions Requiring Rehabilitation
Certain conditions can cause significant disability. Fortunately, rehabilitation can help reduce pain and improve mobility from these conditions.
Conditions that require rehabilitation include:
- Stroke
- Hip fractures
- Some types of arthritis
- Amputation
- Multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy or other neurological disorders
- Major multiple traumas
- Brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
Rehabilitation usually begins as soon as the patient is stable. Rehabilitation for a stroke typically begins within 24 to 48 hours after the incident, for example, while rehab for a hip fracture often begins the day after surgery.
Types of Rehabilitation Services
Rehabilitation care usually includes skilled nursing services, and may include short- and long-term rehabilitation, occupational therapy and more. Short-term rehabilitation usually lasts from a few days to a month. Long-term rehabilitation can last as long as a few months.
There are three basic types of rehabilitative care provided by senior rehabilitation centers:
Basic care – Provides assistance with your personal care, activities of daily living, supervision of medications, and ambulation as you recover from your illness, surgery, or injury
Skilled care – Nurses provide basic treatments and procedures that maximize your recovery
Sub-acute care – Comprehensive services provided by a team of rehabilitation professionals to help you recover from an acute condition
The Who’s Who of Rehabilitation
For best results, rehabilitation requires teamwork among a variety of medical and health professionals, who have undergone special training in providing short-term care, sub-acute nursing and other rehabilitation services.
The rehabilitation team may include:
- Full-time on-site physicians who prescribe and adjust rehabilitative treatments according to the patient’s condition and progress
- Full-Time on-site nurse practitioners who prescribe and adjust rehabilitative treatments according to the patient’s condition and progress
- Orthopedic care that help you overcome muscle, bones joints and nerve problems associated with trauma or illness
- Physical therapists that can help you regain your balance, mobility, and strength during recovery from surgery, illness or injuries; they also provide pain management, gait training, and reconditioning after your hospital stay, orthopedic procedure or illness
- Occupational therapists make sure you can safely do all the everyday activities that are important to you, such as opening packages, getting dressed, using a computer or cutting food, even if you have low vision
- Speech therapists provide rehabilitation services that help restore speech, language, communication and swallowing problems associated with injury or illness
- IV therapy that delivers fluids, nutrients, and medications, which is especially helpful if you have an injury or illness that prevents you from drinking fluids
- Wound care teams that treat pressure ulcers or “bed sores,” ostomies after surgery for colon cancer, sores known as diabetic ulcers and burns
- Pain management that safely and effectively reduces discomfort so that you feel better while resting or engaging in therapy
- Nutritional management specialists who help you choose foods that contain the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients your body needs to heal
- Social workers who help facilitate communication between patients, their families and the various members of the rehabilitation staff
- Podiatrists provide care for foot problems, such as “foot drop,” associated with injury or illness
For optimal outcomes, rehabilitation can also include education in fall prevention and home safety, balance training that reduces the risk of falls, and the prevention of back injuries. Dentists, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals can participate in rehabilitative care.
Rehabilitation at Medford Leas
Choose the rehabilitative professionals at Medford Leas, who can help you navigate your pathway back to wellness. Rehabilitation at Medford Leas offers a supportive and caring approach to your rehabilitation. Medford Leas has proudly
served the community since 1971. Our personable and professional medical team provides skilled nursing services in addition to occupational therapy, short- and long-term rehab, and more in our well-equipped facilities and
fitness center.
Driven by a spirit of recovery, hope and compassion, every member of the Medford Leas staff focuses on one common goal: your well-being. We provide quality rehabilitative care to seniors of Vorhees, Evesham, Mount Holly, Medford, Mount Laurel, and South Hampton.
