✅ Reviewed for accuracy and relevance by Deanna Cooper Gillingham, RN, CCM, FCM on July 11, 2025.
Medical rehabilitation
Medical rehabilitation is specialty healthcare for individuals who have experienced physical impairments or disabilities due to illness, injury, or medical conditions. Medical rehabilitation restores, enhances, or maintains functional abilities. A comprehensive treatment approach is used to improve the individual’s independence in daily activities, adaptation to new circumstances, and overall quality of life. Medical rehabilitation programs are multidisciplinary, with physiatrists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, nurses, and psychologists working together to create a personalized treatment plan to address the individual’s unique physical, emotional, and social needs.
The primary objectives of medical rehabilitation include:
- Maximizing independence
- Restoring/improving function
- Enhancing quality of life
- Preventing complications
Inpatient rehabilitation may be provided in the following settings:
- medical hospital
- long-term acute care hospital
- inpatient rehabilitation hospital
- skilled nursing facility
Clients who do not require inpatient level of care can benefit from outpatient or home health medical rehabilitation services.
Day program – An outpatient program for clients who no longer require hospitalization but still need intensive, coordinated rehabilitation for several hours per day.
Outpatient rehabilitation – 30- to 60-minute therapy sessions per discipline provided in a clinic or hospital outpatient setting.
Home health – Therapy provided in the client’s home for up to one hour per discipline per visit. Visits occur up to three times per week. To qualify for home health care, the patient must be homebound, meaning a taxing effort is required to leave the home. A person may leave home for other medical treatment or for short, infrequent non-medical reasons, such as attending religious services.
Substance use rehabilitation
Substance use disorder treatment involves several stages, which can occur in a variety of settings. The first stage is screening and assessment, evaluating the client’s substance use, medical conditions, and any co-occurring mental health disorders. Next, a personalized treatment plan with realistic goals is developed, based on the assessment findings and the client’s readiness for recovery. Active treatment begins with detoxification, if required. Next is ongoing substance use disorder treatment in one or several of the following methods:
- Long-term residential treatment, usually lasting 6-12 months
- Short-term residential treatment
- Outpatient treatment
- Behavioral therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing
- Medication-assisted treatment
- Group counseling
- Individual counseling
The final stage of substance use disorder treatment focuses on maintaining recovery through ongoing support, counseling, and relapse prevention strategies.
School-based rehabilitation
School-based rehabilitation programs support students with special needs in their educational environment. Therapists work with teachers, families, and other school staff to support students’ education goals and effective functioning at school. They help students access the curriculum, participate in school activities, and function effectively in school, ensuring they can fully participate in their education and reach their potential.
School-based rehabilitation is usually limited to addressing issues that directly affect a student’s education and may not address problems outside the school environment, such as self-care or feeding at home. Therapy sessions in school-based programs are shorter and less frequent than in traditional rehabilitation settings, lasting about 30 minutes.
This article shares a portion of the information covered on this topic in CCM Certification Made Easy, 4th Edition by Deanna Cooper Gillingham, RN, CCM, FCM (2025). For more details on this topic and related concepts, purchase your copy at CCMCertificationMadeEasy.com
