At Cleveland Clinic's Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, our teams of care providers help patients manage and often overcome physical, psychosocial, cognitive and vocational impairments.
Rehabilitation Team
We use a team approach to rehabilitation to help restore as much independence as possible for you and your family. We also help patients in various settings - when they are in the hospital, between the hospital and home (in Cleveland Clinic's Center for Rehabilitation), and on an outpatient basis. We also work closely with Cleveland Clinic Home Care Services.
This broad spectrum of care enables us to address the needs of the individual during each phase of the rehabilitation process, as well as when transitioning from one phase to the next. This continuum allows us to effectively coordinate services to help people maintain the gains they have achieved as inpatients.
Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy are two of the most common services we provide.
What is Physical Therapy?
Physical Therapy aims to improve movement and function by relieving pain. It involves a non-surgical treatment or management of physical disability or injury by exercise, massage water therapy, etc.
Physical Therapists test muscle strength, the amount of flexibility in joints, and the ability to walk or move. Treatments include exercises to increase strength, range of motion, endurance and coordination; the use of heat, cold, electricity or even aquatics to relieve pain; and teaching exercises and body mechanics to avoid injury or to regain function.
Learn about our special services. These services focus on a specific need, such as vestibular rehabilitation, or a specific type of therapy, such as aquatic therapy.
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapy helps patients whose lives have been disrupted by physical injury or accident, effects of a disease process, birth defects, aging, emotional or developmental problems. The skills offered by an Occupational Therapist may include strengthening and stretching exercises, activities designed to improve coordination, and many other skills specifically tailored to your level of functioning.
Occupational therapy can be very beneficial when symptoms make it difficult for you to perform:
- Activities of daily living —Self-feeding, dressing, bathing, grooming, and toileting
- Home management tasks — Meal prep/cooking, cleaning, laundry
- Work-related tasks — Due to cognitive issues, fatigue, or physical impairment, such as decreased hand function
Who We Serve
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation serves patients with impairments and disabilities in the areas of mobility, self-care, communications, swallowing and cognition; the impairments may result from accidents, illnesses or natural causes. These patients’ medical needs may range from simple to very complex, or may be chronic in nature. Issues of endurance and safety, psychosocial, vocational and recreational needs are also addressed.
Patients receive our services throughout the continuum of care:
- while they are in the hospital,
- in an intermediate care facility such as a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF),
- on an outpatient basis.
Most importantly, our rehabilitation team includes the patient and family members. We all work together to restore the patient to his or her community.
An Overview of our Care Services
We emphasize a multidisciplinary team approach. This team, under the guidance Department Chairman Vernon Lin, MD, PhD, coordinates its efforts to effectively manage any special needs of the patient.
Patients with multiple medical problems also benefit from having access to all Cleveland Clinic’s nearly 1,000 physicians in 100 medical specialties and subspecialties easily accessible. We use a state-of-the-art electronic medical record system so that all practitioners can quickly and easily review patients' progress.
Why You Should Choose Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
- Teamwork: Our multidisciplinary team of rehabilitation professionals helps each person regain as much physical mobility and independence as possible.
- Outcomes (PDF): The average stay with Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation has been consistently shorter than the national average while at the same time successfully improving the level of function.
- Communication: The rehabilitation admission coordinator is available to receive referrals and facilitate communication to the referring physician in order to obtain the appropriate level of care.
- Coordination: Patients with multiple medical problems are effectively treated in a multispecialty group environment.
