About MRTBIMS
The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) has been a national leader in rehabilitation research and innovation. Our Brain Injury Medicine and Rehabilitation Program has distinguished itself in providing excellent patient care services, a broad range of educational opportunities for clinicians and advocacy for TBI survivors. Through the combined efforts of medical professionals, researchers, educators and community partners this program has been ensuring high quality, comprehensive care for persons with brain injuries from the time of hospitalization following injury to ultimate return and reintegration into the community.
RIC has had a specialized inpatient clinical program in Brain Injury Medicine for more than 20 years. Integrated, interdisciplinary care for persons with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) has been extended to other levels of care. This is reflected in our network of outpatient and Day Rehabilitation Centers. Care for patients with TBI in our system is a collaborative effort, involving Northwestern University 's Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a Level 1 Trauma Center. During the past 5 years, the TBI program has seen significant growth, with a doubling of inpatient admissions over this time period and with the opening of additional Day Rehab care sites throughout the region. In 2006, approximately 200 patients with traumatic brain injury were admitted for inpatient services to our flagship hospital. Though a significant number are admitted through our partnership within the Northwestern system, many referrals are also received from regional, national and international sources. In addition to this high volume, the inpatients we care for generally represent the more severely impaired patients at admission, compared to regional and national data provided through the national database, “eRrehab”. More than 70% of the inpatients at admission fall within the Medicare-designated case mix groups (CMG) 206 and 207. Our facility contributed about 25% of the cases of the most severe TBI CMG, 207, to the regional Erehab database collection in 2006.
Over the years, RIC’s mission has evolved to one in which it serves as a leader in providing state-of the-art medical and rehabilitation care. In the fall of 2003, a new inpatient Brain Injury unit was opened, designed with TBI survivors’ and clinicians’ input, with the goal of providing an optimal milieu for TBI survivors and their families. The choice of environmental features, including calming design elements and the capability of video monitoring, as well as the interdisciplinary integration of therapy provided on the unit are examples of physical enhancements to support patient care.
