VCU Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

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Fifty Years of Inpatient Rehabilitation on the Medical College of Virginia Campus

The inpatient physical rehabilitation program started in 1952 under the medical directorship of Dr. Herb Park, chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Park was assisted in the development of an interdisciplinary rehabilitation program by Suzanne Hirt, LPT. Hirt also was the first chair of the physical therapy school. The 25-bed program was located on the first and second floors of South Hospital (also known as Memorial Hospital) on the southeast corner of Broad and 12th streets at the VCU Medical Center. The program’s development was in part fostered by a late polio epidemic and the lack of dedicated rehabilitation facilities in Virginia. This program was the second inpatient rehabilitation program in Virginia. The Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville started a few years earlier but it ceased operation as an inpatient hospital in 1993.

The inpatient rehabilitation program grew and moved across Broad Street to West Hospital in 1983. The 41-bed program was located on the second and third floors of West Hospital and it was here that the state’s first dedicated unit for the comprehensive rehabilitation of persons with brain injury was started under the leadership of Dr. Henry Stonnington. In 1987, the program was recognized as one of the charter Model Systems of Care for Persons with Brain Injury by the federal government.

The entire program relocated to the first floor of North Hospital in 1987 and the brain injury unit moved upstairs to the second floor in 1994. The program received its first accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities in 1993. The program also received federal designation as a Model System of Care for Persons with Spinal Cord Injury in 1995. The U.S. News and World Report ranked our rehabilitation program as among the 20 best in the nation in 1998.

More than 12,000 individuals have been assisted by the program during the first 50 years. The program’s motto of "Restoring Hope, Function and Quality to Life" is certainly reflected in the success rate of discharging over 86 percent of patients to the community. The program became known as the Rehabilitation and Research Center in 1992 to more broadly reflect the research and training efforts that also are essential elements of the program’s mission. A strong foundation of compassionate and skilled clinical care, internationally recognized research, and interdisciplinary education position the Rehabilitation and Research Center as a leader in inpatient rehabilitation for the next exciting 50 years and beyond.

For more information on the program, call (804) 828-0861 or visit online at www.rrc.pmr.vcu.edu