Get Back Into Routine With The Outpatient Day Rehabilitation Program
Brain & Spine General Health & Wellness
September 23, 2024
Recovering from an injury or illness that needed a hospital stay doesn't always mean your movement quickly returns to normal. Sometimes, complications can affect your daily routine or slow your healing process. The outpatient day rehabilitation program at Franciscan Health provides therapy to safely guide you back to the things you enjoyed before your injury or illness.
Sachin A Mehta, MD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician with Franciscan Physician Network Neuroscience Specialists Indianapolis, explains what you need to know about the outpatient day rehabilitation program and how outpatient therapy can help you return to the activities you love.
What Is The Outpatient Day Rehab Program?
"When someone has an injury or illness and they're hospitalized, the goal of being in the hospital or even inpatient rehabilitation is to get better and get home," Dr. Mehta said. "Still, what if someone's ready to go home, but they're not really ready to get back into the community?"
Dr. Mehta explained that in some cases, patients aren't ready to get back to driving, work, school or their favorite hobbies and sports after hospital and inpatient rehabilitation care.
"An outpatient rehabilitation day rehab program is a comprehensive approach to outpatient therapy," Dr. Mehta said. "Patients at traditional outpatient therapy may get a little physical therapy then go somewhere else and see their physicians. In the day rehab model, all their therapy services are done under the same roof."
Depending on their needs and treatment plan, patients can receive three types of therapy within the outpatient day rehabilitation program:
"The program is overseen by rehabilitation physicians called physiatrists, which is what I am," Dr. Mehta said. "There are rehabilitation nurses, case managers, neuropsychologists and neuro-optometrists. So, if a patient faces illnesses they can benefit from a more coordinated approach to outpatient rehabilitation."
Dr. Mehta explained that a benefit of the outpatient rehabilitation program is that the entire team meets face-to-face each week to adjust the program to quickly improve patient care.
"If someone needs to change their medications, fix sleeping troubles, pain or even needs a brace or a prosthetic, we can address those things very quickly with a coordinated approach," Dr. Mehta said. "This improves our quality and separates our program from a traditional outpatient therapy program."
What Conditions Are Treated In The Outpatient Day Rehab Program?
The outpatient day rehabilitation program at Franciscan Health Indianapolis focuses on helping people continue to recover after returning home from the hospital. The program aims to address several conditions to help people return to a comfortable lifestyle.
"Anybody who would benefit from a comprehensive outpatient program would likely benefit from an outpatient day rehab program," Dr. Mehta said. "For example, if someone returned home from the hospital after a stroke, the goal of the outpatient day rehab program is to get them back to walking, running or even driving with the dedicated driver's rehab program."
Some of the typical conditions treated in the outpatient day rehabilitation program include:
- Stroke
- Concussion or other traumatic brain injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Parkinson's disease
- Multiple sclerosis
"If concussion symptoms aren't recovering quickly, we get them into balance therapy, vision therapy and cognitive therapy," Dr. Mehta said. "We can coordinate with our social workers directly with their employers and their athletic trainers to get them back to their sport."
Dr. Mehta also explained that if a patient had an amputation, having a coordinated approach with their entire team ensures that focus is on optimizing the patient’s return to function.
How Long Is The Outpatient Day Rehab Program?
The outpatient day rehabilitation program prioritizes the patient's needs during recovery, so the time spent in the program can vary per person.
"Since this is an individualized program where we take the patient's individualized condition and goals, there's no standard number of days in this program," Dr. Mehta said. "Our average length of stay can be anywhere from four to six weeks to four to six months."
Patients receive a home exercise program between their therapy sessions and an extensive home program after their initial sessions end.
"Some of those exercises will become too easy, and then they can re-enroll in the day rehab program to upgrade their home exercises," Dr. Mehta said. "And we can continue to go back and forth with an outpatient program followed by an intense home exercise program."
What Are The Benefits Of The Outpatient Day Rehab Program?
Even compared to other outpatient rehabilitation services, the benefit of Franciscan Health's outpatient day rehabilitation program is that it's personalized for you, with a dedicated team focused on your recovery from major illness or injury.
"The main benefits of participating in a day rehab model is the coordinated approach," Dr. Mehta said. "It's not just going to be one therapist or doctor making a lot of decisions on their own.
"In the outpatient day rehabilitation program, we're able to bounce our ideas back and forth to determine if the patient ready to go back to work, driving, gardening and accomplishing their other goals. All of the providers work together to optimize the quality life of our patients who have suffered a devastating injury."
