News

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue announced today that Newsweek magazine has named the hospital as one of America’s Best Physical Rehabilitation Centers for 2021, ranking it among the nation’s top inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) based on quality of care, quality of service, quality of follow-up care and accommodation and amenities.

The study includes facilities in the 25 states with the highest number of inpatient rehabilitation facilities according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The rankings feature the top 20 percent of facilities per state; that’s 230 centers nationwide.

“Caring is our passion,” said Dr. Shailaja Kalva, Chief of Rehabilitation Medicine. “We strive to make every patient as independent as possible. We are pleased to receive this award in recognition of our team’s skill, our hard work and the hard work of our patients.”

“We have highly skilled physicians and medical professionals accustomed to dealing with highly complex cases. Our hospital has a history of providing excellent care and rehabilitation for patients,” said William Hicks, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue.

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue has a distinguished history in the field of rehabilitation medicine. In 1947, Dr. Howard Rusk, known as the ‘Father of Rehabilitation Medicine’, and Dr. Howard Deaver, a leading expert in physical therapy, established the first non-military rehabilitation service in a general hospital at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. The hospital is a New York State-certified acute traumatic brain injury rehabilitation center. It offers inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services.

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue offers a variety of therapeutic services specifically tailored to the needs of each rehabilitation patient. Inpatients attend three or more hours of therapy a day, five days each week, and family members are invited to participate with their loved ones.

Therapies include:

• Physical Therapy to help patients improve their mobility.
• Occupational Therapy to help patients learn to take care of themselves after an injury or illness, with a focus on activities of daily living. Activities include cooking in a kitchen and other home care tasks designed to help persons who have suffered an injury or illness restore lost skills and regain maximum self-sufficiency.
• Speech Therapy to evaluate and treat disorders of speech, language, cognition, and swallowing.
• Psychology Services to provide emotional support to help individuals get the most out of their rehab medicine treatment, cope with changes, and plan for the future.

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue provides comprehensive medical rehabilitation services to persons who have acquired physical injury and/or cognitive challenges due to brain injury. The Rehabilitation Medicine unit features state-of-the-art equipment to assist individuals in attaining maximum physical, cognitive, psychosocial, educational, and vocational capabilities. Physicians are affiliated with NYU and are specially trained in the treatment of individuals with brain injuries.

The prestigious award is presented by Newsweek and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. The evaluation process was comprised of five steps:

Recommendations from peers: Thousands of medical experts (physicians, therapists, medical doctors, administration & staff working in physical rehabilitation facilities) were invited to an online peer-to-peer survey.

Quality Score: Participants were also asked to rank the quality of care, quality of service, quality of follow-up care and accommodations & amenities.

KPI Data Scores: The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes KPI data for physical rehabilitation centers. The KPI data includes 15 different measures.

Model Systems and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) Accreditations: Facilities with these two accreditations received a bonus to their overall score.

See the rankings here: Best Physical Rehabilitation Centers 2021 – NY (newsweek.com)

Contact: Bellevue Public Relations, 212-562-4516

About NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is America’s oldest public hospital, established in 1736. Affiliated with the NYU School of Medicine, the 844-bed hospital is a major referral center for highly complex cases, with its 6,000 employees including highly skilled, interdisciplinary clinical staff. It is a Level 1 Trauma Center and sees more than 110,000 emergency room visits and 500,000 outpatient visits annually. Clinical centers of excellence include: Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care; Cardiovascular Services; Designated Regional Perinatal Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (ICU); Comprehensive Children’s Psychiatric Emergency Program; and Cancer Services. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/bellevue or find us on twitter.com/BellevueHosp.

About NYC Health + Hospitals

NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 42,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NYCHealthSystem or Twitter at @NYCHealthSystem.