Center for Physical Rehab

St. Margaret’s has specially trained and licensed Physical Therapy Staff to provide Aquatic Physical Therapy to treat patients with a variety of illnesses and neuromuscular conditions.

What is Aquatic Physical Therapy?

Aquatic Physical Therapy is a form of rehabilitation that is provided in chest deep water. The buoyancy of water allows patients to participate in exercise with less stress on the body.

What are the benefits of Aquatic Therapy?

• Increases flexibility
• Reduces stress and promotes relaxation
• Reduces joint pain
• Enhancing aerobic capacity
• Increases muscle strength and endurance
• Improve balance and coordination

Common reasons people will be referred to St. Margaret’s Aquatic Therapy:

• Chronic back pain
• Joint disease
• Arthritis
• Generalized weakness
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Fibromyalgia
• Difficulty walking

For more information on this program, call (815) 223-8600.

St. Margaret’s Industrial Rehabilitation is conveniently located inside our Center for Physical Rehab. Our Industrial Rehabilitation Department develops comprehensive and individualized treatment plans with the goal of returning injured workers to the workplace as quickly and as safely as possible. We also provide employer education focused on employee safety and injury prevention.

Services offered by St. Margaret’s Industrial Rehabilitation:

• Work Conditioning and Work Hardening Programs
• Functional Capacity Evaluations
• Pre Employment Testing
• Return to Work Testing
• Job Site Analysis
• Ergonomic Evaluations
• General Strength and Conditioning Programs
• Return to Work Job-Simulation

For more information, call (815) 223-8600.

St. Margaret’s Center for Physical Rehab has a licensed massage therapist that offers therapeutic massage and reflexology. Massage therapy can be a powerful treatment option, benefiting both physically and psychologically. Massage therapy can decrease pain, improve motion, and promote relaxation and rejuvenation.

Research as shown massage therapy can be beneficial for:

• Anxiety
• Digestive disorders
• Fibromyalgia
• Headaches
• Stress
• Myofascial pain syndrome
• Muscle strains and tightness

For further information, call (815) 223-8600.

Occupational therapy services are offered at both St. Margaret’s hospital during inpatient stays and at St. Margaret’s Center for Physical Rehabilitation.

What are Occupations?

Occupations are the daily activities and tasks that bring value to our lives by fulfilling our needs and desires.   Some common occupations include: cooking, caring for children, getting dressed, carrying items, golfing, working, hunting, etc.

What to expect from Occupational Therapy?

• A holistic and evidence based profession that helps people who have experienced injury, disability or disease both short term and lifelong do what they need to do, want to do, or are expected to do.
• A rehabilitation approach that is aimed to improve a person’s quality of life by enhancing his/her unique abilities and promoting independence.
• Education and recommendations for environmental modifications, adaptive equipment, adaptive techniques/strategies to increase one’s independence and safety.
• Personalized exercise programs, pain management, and/or splints to help one recover as quickly as possible.

Common reasons people have been referred for St. Margaret’s Occupational Therapy services:

• Wrist and finger fractures
• Arthritis
• Tennis and Golfers Elbow
• Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury
• Parkinson’s disease
• Generalized weakness
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Joint replacements

For further information, call (815) 223-8600.

Physical therapy services are offered at both St. Margaret’s hospital during inpatient stays and at St. Margaret’s Center for Physical Rehabilitation.  Physical therapy is crucial to increasing mobility and strength that may be limited from illness, injury, or neuromuscular condition.  Our physical therapy staff design personalized treatment plans based on each patient’s individual needs and goals.

Common Physical Therapy Treatments include:

• Therapeutic exercises
• Joint mobilization
• Soft tissue mobilization (including ASTYM)
• Gait training
• Balance training
• Therapeutic ultrasound
• Electrical stimulation
• Vestibular rehabilitation

Common reasons that people need Physical Therapy:

• Back pain
• Accidents
• Rotator cuff injury
• Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury
• Joint replacements
• Generalized weakness
• Dizziness and Balance Deficits
• Tendonitis
• Sport injuries

For more information, call (815) 223-8600.

St. Margaret’s speech therapists treat patients for inpatient and outpatient services.  Speech therapists will prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults.

Benefits of Speech Therapy include:

• Improving speech
• Improving language
• Increase swallowing function
• Increase cognition

Common reasons people are referred to St. Margaret’s Speech Therapy:

• Stroke
• Speech delay
• Developmental delay
• Autism
• Voice disorders
• Difficulty swallowing
• Stuttering

For more information, call (815) 223-8600.

Cardiac rehabilitation is a program of medical care designed to restore the person with cardiovascular disease to a full and productive life. Cardiac Rehab offers education about heart disease and how to return to an active life through supervised, individualized programs for patients who have experienced a heart attack, open heart surgery or other cardiac condition. A physician referral is needed before entering this program. Exercise classes meet three times a week for eight weeks and are closely supervised. Education classes are held once a week, in conjunction with the exercise class.

For more information, contact your physician, or call (815) 664-1532.

St. Margaret’s Center for Rehabilitation Sports Medicine team provides healthcare to athletes of all ages.  Our athletic trainers provide services to the athletes at Illinois Valley Community College, Hall High School, and St. Bede Academy.

Athletic Training services include:

• On-field/court acute care
• Sport injury evaluations and referrals
• Concussion management
• Strength and conditioning training
• Injury prevention
• Health promotion

Sportsmetrics:

Our sports medicine staff also offers an ACL injury prevention and performance training program called Sportsmetrics.  This research based program is designed to reduce risk of injury and enhance competitive athletic performance.  Sportsmetrics is a neuromuscular retraining program that has a solid foundation in strength, coordination, and overall physical conditioning.

Pelvic floor therapy addresses women’s health issues throughout all phases of life with a comprehensive program that created specifically to address a patient’s individual needs.

Pelvic floor therapy addresses the following issues:

• Female urinary incontinence and urinary frequency
• Mild uterine, bladder and rectal prolapse
• Female pelvic/gynecologic pain
• Postpartum recovery of incontinence or pain

Treatment options include a combination of the following:

• Patient education and lifestyle changes
• Bladder training
• Pelvic floor and core strengthening exercises
• Relaxation techniques
• Biofeedback
• Gentle soft tissue mobilization