Inpatient Acute Rehabilitation - Dignity Health - Mercy General Hospital

Inpatient rehabilitation is the beginning of the recovery phase for individuals 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. Rehabilitation specialists assist with restoring strength, movement and independent functioning before patients go home or to the next level of care.

Common types of rehabilitation include:

• Occupational therapy, which helps you navigate daily tasks
• Physical therapy, which improves strength, movement and flexibility
• Neurological (cognitive) rehabilitation to help treat brain, spinal cord and nerve conditions
• Speech and language therapy, which helps with difficulties speaking or swallowing 
• Rehabilitation psychology

Learn more about rehabilitation services

Inpatient rehabilitation is for anyone who has recently had surgery or a serious illness or injury. At Mercy General Hospital, we commonly support recovery from:

• Amputation
• Arthritis in multiple joints (polyarthritis)
• Guillain-Barre Syndrome
• Heart conditions or heart surgery
• Joint replacement surgery
• Multiple sclerosis
• Multiple trauma
• Neuropathic pain involving multiple nerves (polyneuropathy)
• Orthopedic conditions
• Parkinson’s disease
• Reduced functional capacity after a long-term hospital stay
• Spinal cord injury
• Stroke
• Traumatic brain injury

To be admitted to Mercy General Hospital’s inpatient acute rehabilitation program, a patient must:

• Have medical and functional needs that require acute care

• Show the capacity to participate in and improve with 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 a personal on-site consultation, referral or more information, please call (916) 453-4566 or (800) 330-4566.

At Mercy General Hospital, we’re ready to support all aspects of your recovery. Our comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation services include:

• Amputation rehabilitation

• Cardiac rehabilitation

• Neurological (cognitive) rehabilitation

• Occupational therapy

• Orthopedic rehabilitation

• Physical medicine and rehabilitation

• Physical therapy

• Rehabilitation nursing

• Rehabilitation psychology

• Speech and language therapy

• Spinal cord injury rehabilitation

• Stroke rehabilitation

Depending on your needs, we create a personalized rehabilitation plan to help you:

• Recover mobility and independence

• Regain vital thinking, problem-solving and organizational skills

• Relearn how to perform daily activities

• Return to living in the community

During inpatient rehabilitation, you’ll receive structured, intensive therapy in a hospital setting. We evaluate your health and function when you arrive to understand where you’re starting and set expectations for your recovery.

Every day, you’ll complete a set of therapies tailored to your needs. Therapy often includes exercises that target specific symptoms or abilities. The goal of inpatient rehabilitation is to help you regain strength, function and independence while preparing for a safe transition home or to the next level of care. You’ll also receive ongoing medical care as needed.

Your care team may include:

• Doctors
• Discharge coordinators
• Hospitalists
• Nurses
• Occupational therapists
• Physical therapists
• Rehabilitation psychologist
• Rehabilitation therapists
• Speech-language therapists

Most patients are discharged to the community setting, either home with family and caregivers, to a board and care facility or an assisted living facility. You should plan to have some level of assistance when you return home. Occasionally, a patient will be discharged to a skilled nursing facility or another acute care hospital.

Discharge planning starts before admission and continues throughout your stay. Your discharge destination is determined by many factors including, but not limited to, your support system, insurance coverage, progress and level of assistance needed. You, your family and friends and your care team are all involved in your discharge plan­ning. We will make all the necessary arrangements for equipment and therapy after discharge. Medications will be called into your pharmacy 24 hours before discharge whenever possible, or you can ask your nurse about how they can be delivered to your room on the day of discharge. Preferred discharge time is 11 a.m. Arrangement for continued post-hospital services will be made for you.

Follow-up post discharge:
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 you are continuing to progress and offer any assistance we can.

You may also receive a patient satisfaction survey asking about your experience. If you have any questions or concerns with your care during or after discharge, please call (916) 453-4430 and share your concerns. We want to do everything we can to make your stay here as positive as possible.

At Mercy General Hospital, we do everything possible to make your recovery as seamless as possible. We offer patient and family resources as needed to support:

• Education and setting recovery expectations

• Equipment needed at discharge

• Follow-up therapy or care

• Transportation

Families with loved ones admitted to inpatient acute rehabilitation are eligible for low-cost accommodations through House of Mercy. For more information, please call (916) 453-4663.

Our inpatient acute rehabilitation program was the first in Sacramento to become accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). Since our initial accreditation, we have continued our commitment to advanced care, achieving and maintaining specialty CARF certification for our program overall and for stroke rehabilitation specifically.