Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

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Norton Children’s Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, offers inpatient and outpatient physiatry and rehabilitation medicine, along with physical, occupational and speech therapy. Our board-certified physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians and licensed therapists evaluate and treat infants through young adults for a wide range of injuries and conditions.

Your medical provider may refer your child to rehabilitation services for therapeutic care. Diagnostic and therapeutic tests are included in each evaluation and treatment. We use various play and age-appropriate activities to reach established outcomes and goals for your child. We use the most current technology, research and rehab techniques for creating a therapy plan that includes the whole family, so everyone knows what to expect.

What Is Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation?

Physical medicine and rehabilitation is also known as physiatry or rehabilitation medicine. Our goal is to improve functioning and quality of life for children with disabilities.

A physiatrist is a physician trained to provide care that improves the lives of children with impairments, including those affecting the brain, spinal cord, nerves, bones, joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons. Physiatrists aim to maximize their patients’ day-to-day independence and improve quality of life.

How We Can Help Your Child Improve

Our physiatrists and therapists care for children in the hospital and in outpatient locations. Our coordinated team works with each child to improve function while creating a safe and fun way to strengthen cognitive, physical and social skills.

Our approach treats the whole child and includes the whole family with education about the child’s condition.

While maximizing your child’s skills for daily living and recreation, we focus on school re-integration from the start of treatment. Our physiatrists and therapists routinely collaborate with public and private schools regarding the child’s academic and social needs.

As part of the region’s largest pediatric care team, we work with other providers such as primary care physicians, neurologists and orthopedic surgeons, to gather viewpoints and coordinate care. We also work closely with community and regional providers to ensure continuous care.

If your child needs long-term inpatient rehabilitation, we will recommend admission to the proper facility.

Our broad medical expertise allows treatment of disabling conditions throughout a person’s lifetime and addresses transition of care. Special areas of care include ventilator-dependent patients and the diagnosis and treatment of pain as a result of an injury, illness or a disabling condition.

We’ll work with you, your family and your child to develop a customized therapy plan with a goal of restoring as much function as possible.

You and your child will have access to our full multidisciplinary team of therapists and providers.

The Norton Children’s Difference

With a 125-year presence in Louisville, Norton Children’s is a leader in pediatric care across Kentucky and Southern Indiana, providing an expanded footprint that includes:

  • Norton Children’s Hospital – The hospital works closely with The UofL Health Frazier Rehab Institute’s Pediatric Rehab Program to provide rehabilitation services to our young patients. Norton Children’s Hospital is the region’s only full-service, free-standing pediatric hospital and Louisville’s only Level I Pediatric Trauma Center. It also has one of the largest Level IV (highest level) neonatal intensive care units in the country.
  • Numerous regional outpatient centers and extensive pediatrician and pediatric specialist offices throughout the area
  • Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital – The only women’s hospital in Louisville, providing care dedicated to the needs of women and children
  • Norton Children’s Medical Center – A unique regional outpatient facility designed “Just for Kids,” that brings pediatric care to northeastern Jefferson County and the surrounding area

Norton Children’s Offers Specialized Programs and Services, Including:

  • Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, and the Addison Jo Blair Cancer Care Center, which is one of the oldest oncology programs in the U.S. that has been continuously accredited by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer
  • Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, a pioneer in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. Norton Children’s heart transplant surgeons performed Kentucky’s first heart transplant in a newborn in 1986, making the hospital the second site in the United States for infant transplants. Norton Children’s Hospital is home to the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.
  • Pediatric neurology and neurosurgery, including a Level 3 epilepsy center
  • Orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation
  • The Wendy Novak Diabetes Center