Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
The goals of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation are to assist patients to develop to their fullest physical, psychological, social, vocational, avocational, and educational potentials consistent with their physiological or anatomic impairments and environmental limitations.
Specialized services are provided for disabilities resulting from spinal cord injuries, head trauma, fractures, amputations, cancer, arthritis, soft tissue injury, swallowing disorders, developmental disorders, chronic pain syndromes, neuromuscular diseases, neurological and neurosurgical conditions and cardiopulmonary disease. The Department plays a major role in the Northern New Jersey Model Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) System, a National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research funded initiative.
The Department has two sections: Physiatry, which includes trauma and acute spinal cord injury rehabilitation, outpatient services, and the electrodiagnostic laboratory; and Rehabilitation Therapy Services, which includes occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology, therapeutic recreation, cardiac rehabilitation, a hand service, a pediatric program and WorkForce. A team approach is utilized, which includes coordination with physicians, other allied health professionals, family, and educational and employment settings.