Rehabilitation Medicine

Inpatient Rehabilitation Medicine Statistics and Outcomes

Seattle Children’s provides comprehensive rehabilitation services for children and teens with a wide range of conditions and complex traumatic injuries.

Our Inpatient Rehabilitation Medicine Program includes a Trauma 1 Designated pediatric inpatient rehabilitation facility. Our staff have advanced training and certification in the unique rehabilitative needs of children and teens.

Our rehabilitation unit is accredited for pediatrics by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). CARF International is an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services. CARF accreditation demonstrates a program’s commitment to continuously improve quality with a focus on the safety and satisfaction of patients and their families. 

We publish this data to help you make informed decisions about your child’s care. We also use this information to improve the quality of care we provide.

Durability of Outcomes

“Durability of outcomes” refers to how well your child maintains or improves their performance after they have returned home from the hospital. It is a measure required for CARF accreditation. Your child’s functional skills, health status and levels of participation are evaluated at discharge and again at 90 days post-discharge, to determine whether they have been maintained or improved. We measure durability of outcomes in the following areas:

  • Environment: Percentage of patients discharged to home

    It is a better outcome when a patient can return to their home instead of being discharged to another medical setting. We exceeded our 2022 goal and were able to discharge 99% of patients to their homes rather than to other facilities.

    2022
    >95%
    Goal
    99%
    Outcome

Average Length of Stay in 2022

“Length of stay” means the number of days a child or teen was hospitalized on the rehabilitation unit. Your child’s length of stay will vary based on their illness or injury. Our goal is to get your child back to their home and community as quickly as possible, with the best possible functional level.

  • All diagnoses

    18 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    22 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities

  • Stroke

    13 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    26 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities

Number of Patients in 2022 

Total number of new patients

132
Percentage of new patients by diagnosis
36%
Non-traumatic brain Injury or disease
21%
Traumatic brain injury
9%
Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR)/single-event multilevel surgery (SEMLS)
3%
Non-traumatic spinal cord injury or disease
8%
Debility
4%
Traumatic spinal cord injury
4%
Stroke
Percentage of new patients by age
29%
0 to 5 years old
28%
6 to 12 years old
20%
13 to 15 years old
18%
16 to 18 years old
5%
18+
Average Hours of Therapy per Day by Diagnosis in 2022
3.5
Brain injury
3.8
Traumatic brain injury
3.6
Traumatic spinal cord injury or disease
3.2
Stroke
3.2
Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR)/single-event multilevel surgery (SEMLS)

We will work with you and your child to develop a specific therapy program designed to meet your child’s goals. 

“Hours of therapy per day” includes physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology. Additional services for your child may include education services, rehabilitation psychology, neuropsychology, social work and therapeutic recreation.

Where Patients and Families Come From 

Children and teens from all over the Pacific Northwest come to Seattle Children’s for inpatient rehabilitation. Our staff will work closely with you and your child’s community providers to make the return home as smooth as possible.

9%
Alaska
10%
Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Utah
1%
Montana
14%
Eastern Washington
66%
Western Washington

Patient Race/Ethnicity

The table below shows our most frequently self-reported patient races/ethnicities from October 2021 – December 2022.

4%
American Indian/Alaska Native
19%
Unknown/Refused to Answer
8%
Asian
6%
Black/African American
21%
Hispanic
42%
Non-Hispanic White

Additional Quality and Safety Measures 

We are always working to improve the safety and quality of the care we provide. In addition to the statistics shown above, in 2022 we measured progress on the following goals: 

Improve family satisfaction scores on discharge follow-up survey

Target: >94%
Outcome: 97%

Maintain 0 CLABSI infections

Target: Maintain 0 infections
Outcome: 0 infections

Where does this data come from?

This data reflects national quality and safety metrics required by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). CARF International is an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services. We track this data using the WeeFIM, an outcomes assessment tool that allows us to compare our results with those of other pediatric inpatient rehabilitation programs around the country.

This data also reflects information collected by our internal quality assurance and improvement programs.

Who do I contact if I have questions?

Talk with your child’s doctor or contact the Inpatient Rehabilitation Medicine Program at 206-987-2114.

What Seattle Children’s Measures and Why

We gather this data to: 

  • Measure the health of our patients
  • Improve the quality of the care we provide
  • Help you make informed decisions about your child’s care 

Learn more about outcomes at Seattle Children’s.

Updated February 2023.