The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis offers the clinical, technical and professional resources necessary to provide individualized treatment programs that promote progress toward independence and help patients live without limits.
The Amputee Rehabilitation Program focuses on the unique needs of each individual by helping him or her achieve the highest possible level of independence. Objectives of the program include:
- Interdisciplinary team approach
- Functional tools to address patient confidence in ambulation and balance
- Community re-entry facilitation
- Case management
- High-quality therapy
- Family conferences/education
- Full continuum of inpatient and outpatient programs
- Support group
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Pre-prosthetic instruction
Prosthetic gait training
Instruction in skin care
Prosthetic limb maintenance
Upon entering the program, patients are evaluated by our team of rehabilitation professionals, and an individualized treatment plan is established. Team members may include:
Physical therapists -- work to improve strength, endurance and mobility
Occupational therapists -- improve daily living skills
Dietitians -- provide nutritional evaluation and support
Rehabilitation nurses
Physician -- to address case and disease management
Case manager
Other team members may include psychologists, wound specialists and prosthetics
The treatment plan is designed to accomplish therapeutic goals through a sequence of measurable, achievable steps.
Therapeutic goals include:
- Improving general and specific muscle strength
- Educating the patient and his or her family concerning skin care and maintenance of prosthesis
- Shaping limb for prosthetic fit
- Teaching independence in ambulation with/without prosthesis
- Increasing independence in daily living skills
- Developing coping skills for patient and family adjustment to the physical change and challenges
- Facilitating community re-entry
- Assisting with return to work and job modification
- Interdisciplinary team approach
- Functional tools to address patient confidence in ambulation and balance
- Community re-entry facilitation
- Case management
- High-quality therapy
- Family conferences/education
- Full continuum of inpatient and outpatient programs
- Support group
Patients are accepted to the Amputee Rehabilitation Program by physician referral, and services are provided without regard to the patient's age, sex, color, race, national origin, creed or disability.
To be admitted into the Amputee Rehabilitation Program, the patient must:
- Be medically stable
- Have reasonable potential for improvement
- Have demonstrated impairment in mobility and other self-care activities
For more information about the Amputee Rehabilitation Program or to make a referral, call 314 / 658-3900.
