What to expect in outpatient rehabilitation
Outpatient Rehabilitation
Ohio State provides nationally recognized and accredited rehabilitation services in outpatient settings to conveniently serve you during your recovery.
Helping you feel stronger and more independent on your healing journey
When you’re not able to move or communicate the way you want, it can have a dramatic impact on your overall well-being.
Outpatient rehabilitation, which may include physical, occupational or speech therapies, can help alleviate pain, restore function and improve your quality of life. The therapists at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, have the expertise to help you get back to being your best and manage any pain or limitations you might be facing.
We bring the same coordinated and comprehensive rehabilitation services offered at our nationally ranked inpatient Dodd Rehabilitation Hospital to our outpatient settings. Whether you have a minor injury keeping you from hiking or playing with your grandchildren, or you need continued rehabilitation services upon returning home following a major traumatic injury or surgery, Ohio State offers compassionate and advanced rehabilitation care at convenient locations throughout central Ohio.
Services offered in outpatient rehabilitation
If we determine that outpatient rehab will help you heal, you’ll receive one or a combination of these therapy services:
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech-language pathology
- Wheelchair or other assistive device fitting
- Driving therapy
- Rehabilitation psychology for mental health
One of the unique aspects of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center is that we have diagnosis-specific programs, including in our outpatient clinics. These programs allow us to tailor care specifically to your condition or injury.
View other rehabilitation programs
Specialty outpatient rehab programs
Some diagnosis-specific programs we have include:
- Stroke rehabilitation (accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, CARF)
- Traumatic brain injury rehabilitation (CARF-accredited)
- Spinal cord injury rehabilitation (CARF-accredited)
- Amputee rehabilitation (CARF-accredited)
- Oncology rehabilitation (CARF-accredited)
- Women’s health rehabilitation
- General rehabilitation programming (CARF-accredited)
- Neurological rehabilitation
- Orthopedic rehabilitation
- Movement disorder rehabilitation
- Vestibular disorder rehabilitation
What is outpatient rehabilitation?
Outpatient rehabilitation services are provided in well-equipped therapy gyms or private treatment rooms at one of Ohio State’s many outpatient venues, such as Outpatient Care Dublin or Outpatient Care Lewis Center. Outpatient rehabilitation is any type of therapy that takes place outside of a hospital.
Rehabilitation services, such as physical therapy, offered on an outpatient basis are meant for medically stable individuals, to help them achieve optimal health, functioning and physical and psychological well-being.
How is outpatient rehabilitation different from inpatient rehabilitation?
Outpatient rehabilitation takes place in a therapy gym or doctor’s office, and you go home between treatments. Therapy sessions typically last only 45 minutes to an hour, one or more times a week.
With inpatient rehabilitation, you stay overnight at a hospital and need medical care throughout the day. Your condition is usually more serious, requiring more intensive and varied therapies. Ohio State is home to the award-winning Dodd, where all our inpatient rehab takes place.
Outstanding outcomes for people needing outpatient rehabilitation
- 8,378patients served in outpatient rehab in 2024
- 6-10average number of visits in a care plan
- 2-6average number of weeks of treatment
- 0%of patients reported falling or hospitalization 30 days post outpatient therapy
Who is a candidate for outpatient rehabilitation services?
Outpatient rehabilitation treats a wide range of injuries and illnesses and also benefits many people who have had certain surgeries. The severity of these conditions will vary, with some people needing only a few therapy sessions and others needing therapy for months or longer.
People we treat include those who:
- Have fallen and aren’t healing as quickly as they’d like
- Take medication, such as chemotherapy for cancer, that may be affecting their ability to move or communicate
- Experience an injury that prevents them from playing sports or leading an active lifestyle at the level they want
- Have an orthopedic condition (arthritis, carpal tunnel) or movement disorder (multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease)
- Have had major surgery
- Experience a brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation or other injury due to a traumatic event
- Have had a stroke
These are just a few of the many injuries and conditions we treat with outpatient rehabilitation at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. To make sure outpatient rehabilitation is the right treatment for you, we’ll look at these criteria:
- Do you have a referral from your physician for physical, occupational, speech or some other form of therapy?
- Are you medically stable to participate in outpatient rehabilitation?
- Do you have functional goals to work toward?
- Will significant and practical improvements be made with participation in these therapies?
Answering these few questions will help us determine if outpatient rehabilitation is the most appropriate level of care to meet your needs.
How to make an outpatient therapy appointment
Therapy requires a referral or a prescription from your doctor. If you have a referral, please call our central scheduling line at 614-293-2001 or use the Schedule an Appointment feature in MyChart to begin the coordination of your rehabilitation care and make your first appointment. You can choose from one of our convenient outpatient rehabilitation offices located throughout central Ohio.
Why choose Ohio State for outpatient therapy and rehabilitation?
As one of the leaders in the Columbus area and beyond in rehabilitation care, Ohio State’s outpatient therapy program has many highlights that differentiate our services.
Continued follow-up from a physiatrist: When you leave inpatient rehabilitation, your care will continue to be managed by a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician (a physiatrist), which differs from other, outpatient facilities in Columbus.
Our multidisciplinary team includes social workers: Social workers assist with case management and counseling services for those receiving outpatient therapy and rehabilitation services.
Great patient satisfaction: Our satisfaction scores remain consistently high, given the patient-centered approach to care, advanced technology and relationship-building that we believe makes outpatient therapy successful.
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