About Us

UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital is a free-standing, 50-bed acute inpatient rehabilitation facility located on the east side of Madison. We started accepting patients in September 2015. The UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital is situated on a 10-acre campus with a variety of amenities and features to help you in your recovery journey.

Our rehabilitation hospital offers specialized programs for people who have experienced stroke, brain and spinal cord injuries, amputations, complex orthopedic injuries and other conditions requiring inpatient rehabilitative services.

Our staff provides an interdisciplinary team approach, working with our patients, to help them regain their abilities to perform daily tasks, regain cognitive processes and physical function, restore basic life skills and facilitate psychosocial adjustment and successful reintegration into the community. Our hospital environment itself is designed to help in the journey of recovery.

UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital is staffed with a team of specially trained physicians, nurses and therapists who coordinate together to help develop that interdisciplinary approach, catered to each patient's individual needs. Our goal is to help patients achieve their highest level of recovery with a goal of returning home as soon as they are able.

Some of our unique features on this 10-acre campus include:

• Two floors of private patient rooms designed to promote healing and a return to independence
• A secure brain injury unit with monitored rooms, specialized beds, patient lifts and a dedicated therapy space and dining area
• A dedicated stroke unit with specialized equipment
• Two large therapy gymnasiums featuring high-tech therapy devices and treatments
• Specially equipped rooms for bariatric patients
• An adaptive kitchen for re-learning skills of daily living
• A "functional living apartment" (ADL suite) where patients and their caregivers can practice their independence prior to going home
• Fully accessible, private, family-friendly rooms
• An outdoor healing garden and mobility courtyard
• Outside basketball court and golf area designed for more athlete-focused recovery
• Car module aimed to help train patients and family members in safe car transfer techniques
• On-site dialysis provided by Wisconsin Dialysis (WDI)

The UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital is a partnership between UW Health, UnityPoint Health-Meriter and Lifepoint Rehabilitation.

History

Prior to the opening of the UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital in fall 2015, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics housed a 21-bed acute inpatient unit within the main hospital. Our national partner, Lifepoint Rehabilitation, specializes in partnering with local health care systems to build free-standing acute inpatient rehabilitation hospitals.

UW Health chose to partner with Lifepoint Rehabilitation based on its nationally renowned reputation and experience in providing high-quality, patient-centered care and rehabilitation services focused on improving clinical and patient outcomes. UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital is only the second of its kind in the state of Wisconsin to offer this type of rehabilitative environment.

In February 2016, UnityPoint Health-Meriter joined the partnership with UW Health and Lifepoint Rehabilitation. UnityPoint Health-Meriter supported a 16-bed acute rehab unit within its hospital. The local collaboration between the two health systems is encouraging for potential of acute rehab in South Central Wisconsin region and the benefits for our combined communities.

The need for physical rehabilitation services is anticipated to grow as the population ages in our region and continues to be affected by the high incidence of stroke, cardiovascular and orthopedic conditions. UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital will remain integrated with the services of UW Health in continuing the rehabilitative needs of its patients, as well as surrounding communities.

UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital is a Joint Commission-accredited acute inpatient rehabilitation hospital.

Our rehabilitation programs provide ongoing care and specialized treatment to patients throughout their recovery journey. We offer customized, intense rehabilitation tailored to the individual needs of those recovering from stroke, brain injury, neurological conditions, trauma, spinal cord injury, amputation, and orthopedic injury.

We strive to maximize the health, function, and quality of life of those we serve through comprehensive physical medicine and rehabilitation programs.

For those acute patients who qualify, research shows inpatient rehabilitation hospitals are an effective setting for:

• Increasing independence in mobility, transfers, and activity of daily living skills
• Going home quickly
• Short lengths of stay
• Receiving daily physician and nurse attention
• Minimizing hospital readmission

Distinguishing Features of Inpatient Rehabilitation:

• Daily accessible physician specially trained in rehab
• Low patient-to-rehab nurse ratio goal: 5-7 patients to one rehab nurse
• Intensive therapy with short lengths of stay
• Transfer to an inpatient rehabilitation hospital does not require full three-day stay at a short-term acute care hospital
• 15 hours/week of therapy required

Our program has ranked in the top 8% of rehabilitation hospitals nationally by Uniform Data System (UDS)! 

Our top-performer designation is based on our ranking in the top deciles of UDS for the Medical Rehabilitation program evaluation model for more than 800 facilities, a report card for rehabilitation settings. UDS maintains the world's largest database of medical rehabilitation outcomes. That means your patients will get outstanding care, designed to help them regain as much function as possible. 

What Does It Mean to Be in the Top 8%? 

UDSMR considers all facilities that rank in the top 8% of the database as top program performers, recognizing their delivery of quality patient care as effective, efficient, timely and patient-centered. 

Top 8% hospitals typically have a higher-than-­target discharge to community and lower-than-target percentage of return to acute care during the rehab stay. 

Top 8% hospitals typically have greater than 92% of their patients exceed the case level facility targets for discharge quality measures - self-care score and mobility score, change in self-care score and mobility score and functional efficiency.