Inpatient Rehabilitation Program - Dominican Hospital - Inpatient

Inpatient rehabilitation is the beginning of the recovery phase for adults and children who have experienced a recent illness, injury or surgery. In this recovery phase, patients stay at the hospital and receive consistent, personalized medical and rehabilitation care. 

Common types of rehabilitation include occupational therapy, which helps you navigate daily tasks, physical therapy, which improves strength, movement and flexibility, and speech and language therapy, which helps with difficulties speaking or swallowing. The specialty also includes cardiac rehabilitation to support heart health, pulmonary rehabilitation to strengthen the lungs and neurological (cognitive) rehabilitation to help treat brain, spinal cord and nerve conditions.

Learn more about rehabilitation services

Inpatient rehabilitation is for anyone who has recently had an illness, injury or surgery. At Dominican Hospital, our services are specifically designed for individuals who have experienced:

• Amputation
• Cardiac conditions
• Complex orthopedic conditions
• Guillain-Barre syndrome
• Major multiple trauma
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Parkinson’s disease
• Polyarthritis
• Polyneuropathies
• Spinal cord injury
• Stroke
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI)

At Dominican Hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation program, our coordinated team consists of physicians who specialize in physical medicine and rehabilitation, certified rehabilitation nurses and social workers. We help you relearn skills, recover mobility and regain vital thinking, problem-solving and organizational skills so you can return to your normal activities.

Depending on your individual needs, other specialists are also available to work with you, including:

• Occupational medicine specialists
• Orthotic/prosthetic specialists
• Physical therapists
• Psychologists
• Registered dietitians
• Respiratory therapists
• Speech-language pathologists

Our inpatient rehabilitation program at Dominican Hospital provides three hours of therapy per day, at least five days per week. You may also have additional therapeutic activity, as needed. Your program may include:

• Balance training/fall-prevention exercises
• Cognitive/engagement therapy
• Diabetic education with a dietitian
• Eye exercises
• Mobility training
• Psychological services
• Robotic gait training
• Speech therapy
• Spiritual care

Your physician will meet with you daily to discuss your progress, and nurses are available 24/7 for any additional needs. To plan for discharge, you’ll have weekly meetings with your care team, pre-discharge home evaluations and an overnight trial for you and your caregiver in a transitional independent living room.

Each patient is unique, and their inpatient rehabilitation plan will depend on the severity of their impairment and limitations in function. Therefore, the length of stay for rehabilitation varies based on medical condition, goals of the patient, progress and a number of other factors. You can expect to participate in a team meeting within the first week of admission to discuss your individual goals and discharge needs.

The acute rehabilitation unit at Dominican Hospital features 20 fully equipped private rooms. The facility includes a transitional living apartment, which allows you and your caregivers to practice the necessary skills you need to be successful upon your return home after a significant injury or illness. 

You have access to a gym that includes specialized technologies to help regain function, mobility and self-care. We also have a rehab garden, which is a large outdoor space close to the unit that offers a healing environment to engage in therapies. In addition, our family recreation room, designated patient dining room and outdoor patio offer you a space to enjoy music, movies and other activities.

Families and caregivers are also a part of your care team, so we help them feel as comfortable as possible while participating in the rehabilitation process. Most patients will require assistance and/or supervision from their family or caregiver once they are discharged. So, we request that they participate in education and training sessions throughout your stay.

After you leave the hospital, we may transition you to our outpatient rehabilitation services. We also offer community-based classes to help you stay strong and healthy and prevent future problems.

Most rehabilitation patients are discharged to the community setting, either home with family and caregivers, to a board-and-care facility or an assisted living facility. It’s important that you plan to have some level of assistance when you return home.

You will be contacted after discharge to follow up on your treatment. You may receive follow-up calls to check on your progress starting within three days and continuing up to three months post-discharge. We want to ensure that you are continuing to progress and offer any assistance we can.

To be admitted to our inpatient rehabilitation program, you must:

• Be at least 18 years of age or older and demonstrate appropriate functional and medical needs, including a qualifying diagnosis as determined by the rehabilitation physician
• Require 24-hour rehabilitation nursing care and need daily access to providers specializing in rehabilitation and physical medicine
• Demonstrate the capacity to participate in and make functional gains from three hours of daily intensive therapy for a minimum of five days per week
• Have a safe community discharge destination with appropriate assistance from identified caregivers or family members

For information regarding admission and/or our program, please contact our admission team at (831) 239-5811.

Many insurance plans cover inpatient rehabilitation services when medically necessary. Ask your insurance provider or call us to understand what your specific plan requires.

California Hospital Medical Center is an approved provider for Medicare and Medi-Cal. We handle the admission authorization from insurance companies.