Year after year, Carolinas Rehabilitation returns more people to their homes than most other rehabilitation hospitals. Carolinas Rehabilitation offers one of the most renowned and effective spinal cord injury (SCI) programs in the Southeast. Open to both children and adults, our program helps our patients reach optimal functional levels faster, so they, and those around them, can return to a more productive lifestyle. Located adjacent to Carolinas Medical Center, one of the nation's top-ranked hospitals, Carolinas Rehabilitation combines experienced care teams with services that help our patients overcome the many hurdles of neurological treatment.

Our SCI program offers a wide variety of special services, including a neuro-urology department with a neuro-urologist on faculty, a complete range of subspecialty-certified spinal cord injury physicians and a multidisciplinary skin and wound inpatient and outpatient clinic. Due to our long-term success and accomplished staff, we are often considered for clinical trials and research studies offering new treatment options for patients with SCI.

In addition, we treat other neurological conditions including one of the area's only post-polio programs, allowing us to treat and offer therapy to the nearly two million polio survivors in the United States.

Pictured above LaTanya Lofton, MD; William Scelza, MD; William Bockenek, MD

Interdisciplinary Team Our comprehensive spinal cord team has many years of experience and expertise in SCI rehabilitation. This team will individually tailor the patient's inpatient program to best meet the needs of the patient and work to return the patient to the highest level of functioning possible.  Once admitted, a patient diagnosed with a spinal cord injury is assigned to one of our SCI teams, led by one of our dedicated spinal cord injury specialized physicians. (Read more about our SCI physicians.) This physician will work with other rehabilitation professionals to design the best course of treatment for each patient. In addition to the physician, the team may include physical, occupational or speech therapists, recreational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, case managers, social workers, and urology nurses. Nutritionists, vocational counselors, vocational evaluators, a chaplain, educational specialists and others may also participate on the SCI team, depending upon the patient's needs. Because of this multiphase, comprehensive approach, our program continually exceeds national standards in the number of patients who are discharged to resuming their lives in their communities.

Our Results
We continually strive to meet excellent standards in our efforts to help patients who have sustained life-altering injuries return to their homes and communities. We carefully monitor our outcomes compared to similar facilities across the nation in an effort to continually meet or exceed standards.

Specialty Services for the patient with SCI

Carolinas Rehabilitation has many special services, including but not limited to:

Neuro-urology department with a neuro-urologist on faculty	Multi-depth therapy pool with hydraulic lift
10-day interdisciplinary SCI Education Series	Partial-weight bearing system for supported gait training
Multidisciplinary skin and wound inpatient and outpatient clinic	Assistive Technology Lab for loaner equipment and consultative services
Assisted reproductive and sexual dysfunction therapy	Adaptive childcare training for prenatal through postnatal spinal cord injury patients
Comprehensive wheelchair seating clinic with pressure mapping technology	Early access to therapeutic recreation and the Adaptive Sports and Adventures Program
Ability to manage Ventilator Dependent patients	Psychological counseling and Clinical Social Work
Transitional Living Apartment for overnight family training	Referrals made to community programs such as Independent Living and Vocational Rehabilitation

Outpatient Services
One of the advantages of choosing Carolinas Rehabilitation is our ability to offer the full continuum of care for our patients. From outpatient physician services to physical, occupational and speech therapy, the SCI program is designed for each patient, developed by the multi-disciplinary outpatient team. We specialize in teaching functional independence skills and educating patient and families on wellness and use of adaptive equipment.   

Support Group
The SCI/D Social Group brings together individuals with spinal cord injuries and diseases, family members and friends to meet and socialize, ask questions and provide answers.

View our patient testimonials