The Stroke Rehabilitation Program at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center provides comprehensive rehabilitative services for people who have experienced a stroke. Stroke’s effects are highly individualized – depending on the location and intensity of the brain injury. Mobility, communication, swallowing and thinking abilities may be affected.
Ohio State provides personalized rehabilitative care that addresses each person’s unique condition and needs and promotes the best pathway to recovery. Ohio State’s care team uses evidence-based therapies to help each person reach the highest level of functioning and the best quality of life.
Our Patients
Ohio State offers stroke rehabilitation services to patients from the young adult thru geriatric years. These individuals may be affected by:
- Hemorrhagic stroke (related to blood vessel leak and bleeding in the brain)
- Ischemic stroke (related to a blocked vessel and lack of blood flow to the brain)
- Disorders causing damage to the brain (multiple sclerosis or brain tumors)
Why choose The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center?
Ohio State’s comprehensive rehabilitative care programs help people optimize their abilities and achieve a higher level of independence. Here’s why people choose Ohio State for stroke rehabilitation:
Personalized Care: You will receive a personal evaluation that helps create an individualized care plan to meet your needs and lead you toward your health goals. Ohio State offers continuity of care that begins with emergency services, continues in acute care and inpatient therapy, and supports you with outpatient services after your hospital discharge.
Unique Services: Our rehabilitation specialists have pioneered important therapies related to stroke rehabilitation, including the use of Botox®. Given in very small amounts directly to a specific muscle, Botox® can block the transmission of certain nerve impulses. This can help relax muscle spasticity that may occur after a stroke. Throughout your care, you will benefit from working with staff who have specialized training and certification in stroke-related treatments and therapies. For example, Ohio State is the only facility in central Ohio to have a board-recognized specialist in swallowing disorders. In addition, Ohio State offers a specialized educational series for you and your family that is dedicated to stroke recovery.
Accredited Programs: We are proud that our Inpatient Rehabilitation Programs at Dodd Hall and our Outpatient Medical Rehabilitation Programs are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). CARF recognizes our programs as meeting the highest standards in quality, safety and outcome measures, which provide risk-reduction and accountability in our patient care. We are the only rehabilitation program in central Ohio certified for both traumatic brain injury and stroke.
Nation’s Best: Ohio State’s rehabilitation program consistently ranks among the best in the nation. As an academic medical center, Ohio State offers comprehensive medical expertise, the most advanced technologies and treatment techniques, and innovative care backed by research knowledge.
Our Services
Your rehabilitation program may include:
- Adaptive technology devices, assistive devices, such as wheelchairs, braces and special computer equipment and technology, for easier home and work activities
- Bioness technology, electrical stimulation medical devices designed to help people gain mobility and function
- Functional electrical stimulation, uses low levels of electrical current to stimulate physical or bodily functions lost through paralysis
- Neuromodulation, the use of neurological pacemakers and other devices to deliver electrical signals, medications and other therapeutic agents precisely into the brain, spinal cord and nervous system
- Saeboflex technology, a hand orthotic that helps maximize arm and hand function following a neurological injury
- Augmentative communication assessment and training to determine communication needs and appropriate aids and techniques
- Case management, coordination of inpatient and post-hospital care and services for patients and families
- Counseling
- Driver training
- Neurological diagnostic tests, such as CT scan, MRI and EMG
- Neuropsychological evaluations, measure concentration, learning and other skills
- Rehabilitation psychology, behavioral and psychological treatment for patients and families coping with chronic illness, chronic pain and disability
- Return-to-work training
- Patient education focused on lifestyle adjustments
- Videofluoroscopy, fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation for swallowing, and neuromuscular electrical stimulation to diagnose and treat swallowing disorders
- Arts therapy, uses the creative process to help patients improve physical skills, thinking skills and emotional well-being
- Cognitive therapy, helps with thinking and understanding skills
- Locomotor training (LT), a method of physical therapy where the patient is suspended in a harness over a treadmill, while specially-trained therapists moves his or her legs to simulate walking
- Occupational therapy, helps patients participate in activities of daily living
- Optokinetic training, exercises and activities to increase visual field and visual perception
- Physical therapy, helps patients improve strength, mobility and fitness
- Real world simulations, such as community reentry and independent living apartment
- Recreational therapy, helps patients engage in recreational and leisure activities to enhance community participation and satisfaction
- Speech therapy, treatment of speech and communication disorders
- Vestibular therapy, exercise-based program that helps improve balance
- Vision evaluation and vision therapy, therapy for the eyes and brain
Your Treatment Plan
Our rehabilitative programs help you overcome stroke damage with treatment plans that may include:
- Optimizing brain plasticity, rewiring the brain for recovery
- Exercising to help improve strength, swallowing, communication and thinking
- Improving skills needed to perform daily activities
- Developing strategies to compensate for functional problems
- Adapting leisure activities improve quality of life
Your Treatment Team
Your personalized treatment plan starts with a team of specialists who may include:
- Physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians or physiatrists who specialize in helping people regain body functions lost due to medical conditions or injuries
- Neurologists who specialize in disorders of the nervous system
- Neurosurgeons who specialize in surgery on the brain and other parts of the nervous system
- Neuropsychologists specialize in the effects that injury to or diseases of the brain and spinal cord have on emotions, behavior and learning
- Certified rehabilitation nurses who specialize in the care of the chronically ill and injured
- Physical therapists who specialize in helping patients achieve maximum strength, balance and mobility
- Occupational therapists who specialize in improving patients’ ability to complete activities of daily living
- Speech-language pathologists who specialize in helping patients improve communication, cognition and swallowing
- Recreational therapists who specialize in providing education and community-based interventions to improve patients’ physical, mental, social and emotional well-being
- Respiratory therapists who specialize in assessing and treating breathing disorders
- Dietitians who specialize in nutrition and dietetics
- Social workers who specialize in the social, emotional and financial needs of families and patients
- Case managers who specialize in the coordination of inpatient and post-hospital care and services for patients and families
- Rehabilitation engineers who specialize in determining, implementing and training patients on assistive technology devices, such as wheelchairs, special computer workstations and remote control systems