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:
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Activity: WeeFIM scores at discharge and at 90 days post-discharge
This table shows our goal for improving WeeFIM scores at discharge and at 90 days post-discharge. We surpassed our goal in 2022 with a 30.3% improvement rate.
202215%Goal improvement30.3%Actual improvement
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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%Goal99%Outcome
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Health status: Percentage of patients who do not require hospitalization after returning home
This table shows the percentage of Seattle Children’s patients who did not need to return to the hospital for rehab-related reasons after being discharged. A higher rate is considered better. We exceeded our 2022 goal, with a rate of 97%.
2022>95%Goal97%Outcome
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Participation: Percentage of families who were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with child’s preparation for returning to school.
This table shows the percentage of families who report they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the way the rehabilitation program prepared their child for returning to school.
202290%Return to School
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Participation: Percentage of families who reported their child has returned to play and leisure activities.
This table shows the percentage of families who report that their child has returned to participation in play and leisure activities after discharge from the rehabilitation program.
202283%Play and Leisure Activities
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.
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All diagnoses18 daysAverage length of stay at Seattle Children’s22 daysAverage length of stay at similar facilities
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Brain injury (such as brain tumor)17 daysAverage length of stay at Seattle Children’s23 daysAverage length of stay at similar facilities
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Traumatic brain injury (due to accident or other trauma)15 daysAverage length of stay at Seattle Children’s24 daysAverage length of stay at similar facilities
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Spinal cord disease (such as neurodegenerative disease, myelitis, etc.)22 daysAverage length of stay at Seattle Children’s25 daysAverage length of stay at similar facilities
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Traumatic spinal cord injury (due to accident or other trauma)25 daysAverage length of stay at Seattle Children’s34 daysAverage length of stay at similar facilities
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Stroke13 daysAverage length of stay at Seattle Children’s26 daysAverage length of stay at similar facilities
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Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR)/single-event multilevel surgery (SEMLS)15 daysAverage length of stay at Seattle Children’s20 daysAverage length of stay at similar facilities
Number of Patients in 2022
Total number of new patients
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.
Patient Race/Ethnicity
The table below shows our most frequently self-reported patient races/ethnicities from October 2021 – December 2022.
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.