After a serious injury, illness, or surgery, you may need rehabilitation to regain your strength, relearn skills, or find new ways of doing things you did before. Our rehabilitation services include:

• Physical therapy to improve your strength, mobility and fitness
• Occupational therapy to help you with your daily activities
• Pain management

The type and goal of therapy may differ for different people. A younger person may need to return to work and normal activities, whereas an older person may simply want to dress or bathe without help.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy addresses a wide range of functional limitations -- the inability to walk, move a body part, or get out of a chair following a patient’s stay at the hospital due to illness, injury, or surgery. Patients are seen by physical therapists, who can perform and initial evaluation and recommend treatments, and by physical therapy assistants (PTAs), who are dedicated to follow-up treatments. It is the goal of these therapist to help patients return to their maximum level of function before returning home. Safety upon discharge is always another important objective.

Orthopedic physical therapy treatment sessions are typically 30 minutes long, and are scheduled as early as 8 a.m., or earlier for bedside educational sessions. Patients must be able to actively participate in order to get the maximum benefit from their therapies. Physical therapy typically addresses strength and range of motion, which impact a patient’s ability to stand up and walk. Once out of bed, we assess the patient’s balance and safety awareness. These assessments impact discharge plans and the type of medical equipment a patient will be given to take home.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy (OT) addresses functional aspects of everyday living, such as difficulty bathing and dressing, due to illness, injury, or elective surgery. Occupational therapy focuses on increasing the patient’s safety and independence in performing self-care activities. This may include:

• Bed mobility training
• Car transfer training
• Light homemaking tasks
• Toilet training
• Shower transfer training
• Upper extremity exercise
• Dressing training Family training

St. Joseph features a full staff of occupational therapists who can evaluate a new patient and perform follow-up treatments, and certified occupational therapy assistants (COTA) who are dedicated to follow-up treatments. OT staff members work with both patients and their family members to help them return to their routine of performing activities of daily living.

Orthopaedic occupational therapy begins with an interview to obtain information about a patient’s prior level of function, home setup, and available family support. Therapists then evaluate the patient’s upper extremity range of motion, muscle strength, sensation, and coordination, as well as basic self-care skills such as bed mobility, toilet transfer and dressing. Patients will typically have one occupational therapy session per day, but this may vary depending on the patient’s needs.

When functional deficits are identified, our therapists determine whether inpatient or home therapy is most appropriate and work with each patient to set rehabilitation goals. They also formulate discharge recommendations and they make recommendations regarding home therapy equipment requirements, as needed.

For more information, call 410.337.1330.