Inpatient Rehabilitation

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 several measures that show how well your child maintains or improves their skills after they have returned home from the hospital. These measures are required for CARF accreditation. Your child’s functional skills, health status and levels of participation in play and community activities 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:

  • WeeFIM scores at discharge and at 90 days post-discharge

    The WeeFIM is an assessment tool that measures functional independence in skills such as walking, dressing, and communicating. This table shows our goal for improvements in WeeFIM scores between discharge from the hospital, and 90 days post-discharge. We surpassed our goal in 2023 with a 27% improvement rate across all diagnoses.

    2023
    15%
    Goal improvement
    27%
    Actual improvement
  • 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 2023 goal and were able to discharge 94% of patients to their homes rather than to other facilities.

    2023
    >90%
    Goal
    94%
    Outcome
  • Percentage of patients who do not require hospitalization after returning home

    This table shows the percentage of Rehabilitation 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 2023 goal, with a rate of 87%.

    2022
    >85%
    Goal
    87%
    Outcome
  • Percentage of parents or caregivers who were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their child’s preparation for returning to school.

    This table shows the percentage of families or caregivers who reported they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied,” at 90 days post-discharge, with the way the rehabilitation program prepared their child for returning to school.  We exceeded our goal, with parent or caregiver satisfaction at 96%.  

    2023
    >90%
    Goal
    96%
    Outcome
  • Percentage of parents or caregivers who reported their child had returned to play and leisure activities.

    This table shows the percentage of parents or caregivers who reported that their child had returned to regular participation in play and leisure activities at 90 days post-discharge from the rehabilitation program. We did not meet our goal for this target. Analysis of scores revealed a higher percentage of children with levels of functioning that might limit their independence in play or leisure activities, especially outside the home.

    2023
    >83%
    Goal
    74%
    Outcome

Average Length of Stay in 2023

“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 ouctome.

  • All diagnoses
    18 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    22 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities
  • Brain injury (due to disease or disorder, such as brain tumor)
    20 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    21 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities
  • Traumatic brain injury (due to accident or other trauma)
    16 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    24 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities
  • Spinal cord disease (such as neurodegenerative disease, myelitis, etc.)
    9 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    23 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities
  • Traumatic spinal cord injury (due to accident or other trauma)
    22 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    33 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities
  • Stroke
    19 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    24 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities
  • Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR)/single-event multilevel surgery (SEMLS)
    16 days
    Average length of stay at Seattle Children’s
    20 days
    Average length of stay at similar facilities

Number of Patients in 2023

Total number of new patients

125
Percentage of new patients by diagnosis
34%
Non-traumatic brain injury or disease
22%
Traumatic brain injury
10%
Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR)/single-event multilevel surgery (SEMLS)
6%
Debility
6%
Stroke
2%
Traumatic spinal cord injury
1%
Non-traumatic spinal cord injury or disease
Percentage of new patients by age
25%
0 to 5 years old
26%
6 to 12 years old
22%
13 to 15 years old
22%
16 to 18 years old
5%
19+
Average hours of therapy per day by diagnosis in 2023
3.4
Brain injury
3.8
Traumatic brain injury
3.8
Traumatic spinal cord injury or disease
3.3
Stroke
3.4
Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR)/single-event multilevel surgery (SEMLS)

 “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.

We will work with you and your child to develop a specific therapy program designed to meet your child’s goals.

Unplanned transfers for medical reasons, by diagnosis
2
Cancer
1
Traumatic spinal cord injury
1
Non-traumatic brain dysfunction

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.

8%
Alaska
10%
Montana, Idaho and Oregon
20%
Eastern Washington
62%
Western Washington

Patient Race/Ethnicity

The table below shows our most frequently self-reported patient races/ethnicities from October 2022–September 2023.

34%
Non-Hispanic White
26%
Other/Did Not Answer
21%
Hispanic
10%
Asian
7%
Black/African American
2%
American Indian/Alaska Native

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 2023 we measured progress on the following goals: 

Improve parent or caregiver satisfaction scores on discharge follow-up survey

This goal measures whether parents or caregivers would recommend Seattle Children’s Rehabilitation Services to someone whose child needed rehabilitation. We surpassed our positive response goal of >95%. 

Target: >95%
Outcome: 99%

Maintain 0 CLABSI infections

This goal measures the number of CLABSI infections (central line associated bloodstream infections) which occurred in our patients. We have maintained a rate of 0 CLABSI infections for more than 8 years and sustained that performance in FY23.  

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 March 2024.