Staten Island University Hospital's Department of Rehabilitation Medicine is highly respected for its range of programs that help Rebuild Lives following life-altering injuries and disorders that require personal determination and commitment to return to a level of independence and well being.
Staten
Island University Hospital's 
Rehabilitation
Medicine Department continues to maintain accreditation by the Commission
on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) for its programs
in Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation and Outpatient Infant and Early
Childhood Development Rehabilitation, and adheres to the strict nationwide
standards CARF demands.
The Rehabilitation Medicine Department is staffed by healthcare professionals at all levels who are selected for their skills, their dedication, and their patience and understanding. Therapy is always personally delivered through a coordinated team approach in which the most important team members are the patient and his/her family.
The patients we serve have a variety of disorders, some of which are neurological, orthopedic, and vascular impairments.
Many patients who come to the rehabilitation facility are those who have suffered strokes, amputations, hip fractures, joint replacements, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, spinal cord injuries, burns, cancer, hand injuries, and chronic pain conditions. In addition, the Rehabilitation Medicine Department is now the largest center for Traumatic Brain Injury therapy in the downstate New York area.
Patients
in Rehabilitation Medicine's care experience an intense program of therapies
all aimed at their recovering their independence. Patients are involved in
rehabilitation therapy 
for
a minimum of three hours daily, and even meal times are opportunities for
therapy. After hours, recreation therapists plan and run various activities
meant to keep patients active and involved in their own care, while providing
opportunities for healthy social interaction. An innovative Pet Therapy program
has proved successful with most patients who may be deprived of their own
pets while hospitalized.
Perhaps most comforting to patients and especially to their families is the fact that the Rehabilitation Medicine Department Is hospital based, with immediate access to recognized medical and surgical programs if the need arises.
The ultimate goal of the department's mission is to prepare patients to return to their normal environment, strong enough, physically and mentally, to participate in their own care while achieving a normal lifestyle.
In many
cases, patients will continue their various therapies either on an outpatient
basis, at the Department's ambulatory facility on the hospital's campus, or
at home through arrangements supervised by a phychiatrist.