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The Neurorehabilitation Program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital is an intensive inpatient program that optimizes physical, psychological, social, vocational, and educational performance in children who have experienced a significant injury or illness. Children served in the program may have diagnoses such as:
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The Neurorehabilitation Program has 9 licensed beds.
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The program treats approximately 50 inpatients per year.
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15-20 percent of our children are transferred to the Neurorehabilitation Program from other hospitals, while the remainder are referred from various specialists within the hospital.
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Age range of children is from 6 months to 18 years; average age is 9 years old.
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Length of stay ranges from 1 week to 12 or more weeks; average is approximately 4 weeks.
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Nearly 75 percent of children achieve their predicted goals by the time of discharge.
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Over 90 percent of children discharged from the program are able to go directly home.
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Over 97 percent of parents rate the Neurorehabilitation Program as excellent.
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The St. Louis Children’s Hospital Neurorehabilitation Program is
CARF accredited.
Children with these and other diagnoses must meet specific admission criteria before being transferred to the Neurorehabilitation Program:
1. The patient’s condition must be medically stable, but one that requires intensive and multidisciplinary rehabilitative care.
2. The child’s prior physical and cognitive levels are compatible with the potential for recovery of function.
3. The patient’s diagnosis indicates:
- a reasonable expectation for improvement
- potential to achieve clearly identifiable treatment goals within a reasonable period of time
4. The child is responsive to verbal or visual stimuli, and has sufficient alertness to participate in the rehabilitation program.
One of the first steps that occur when a child is accepted into the Neurorehabilitation Program is development of long-term and short-term goals. Our goal is to improve each child’s skills and abilities and to increase functional independence as much as possible. During the child’s stay, each day will consist of many activities designed to meet his or her special needs.
Children who are admitted to the Neurorehabilitation Program will stay on the 12th floor. The therapy gym is located adjacent to the patient rooms. During their stay, children and families will likely visit many other areas of the hospital as well, including the school room, teen lounge, Olson Family Garden, or the Family Resource Center.
As progress is made, the child and members of the team may go on a Therapeutic Community Outing (TCO). This might be a trip to Forest Park, to the zoo, to a local shopping mall, or to a local restaurant. Each TCO is designed to achieve specific goals and support the use of newly learned skills in a natural environment. And in the process, we have fun!
At some point before discharge, the family is encouraged to take the child on a Functional Trial Visit. This is an opportunity to go out into the community or to go home briefly and see which areas of the child’s care the family is comfortable with and what additional support or training they may need before discharge.
Many supports are in place to help the child and family prepare for discharge. These include: