The [removed]Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago[/removed] (RIC) and Silver Cross Hospital, Joliet, Ill, have formed a strategic partnership that will expand post-acute physical medicine and rehabilitation services in Will County and the southwest Chicagoland communities.

Together, Silver Cross and RIC provide rehabilitation services in inpatient and outpatient care settings, and the RIC team provides physical therapy services for patients on the hospital’s medical and surgical floors.

The team at RIC – Silver Cross team of health professionals includes physiatrists, which are physicians that specialize in physical medicine and rehabilitation, occupational and physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, dietitians, recreational and developmental therapists, audiologists, and rehabilitation nurses.

“Through this unique partnership with Silver Cross, RIC is able to extend its mission of providing comprehensive rehabilitation care to a community with an aging population that will have an increasing need for these services,” said Joanne C. Smith, MD, president and CEO, RIC. “Together, our two institutions will enable citizens with conditions such as stroke, cancer, and brain injury to restore function, return abilities, and ultimately, enhance the quality of their lives.”

Silver Cross is a not-for-profit health care provider serving Will County and southwest suburban communities since 1895.

RIC provides comprehensive physical medicine and rehabilitation care to patients from around the world and specializes in research and development of treatments and technologies in its field. The facility holds  six federal research designations awarded and funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education’s National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the areas of spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, neurological rehabilitation, outcomes research, and rehabilitation engineering research. RIC operates its 165-bed, flagship hospital in downtown Chicago, and a network of 30 sites of care distributed throughout the Midwestern region, through which it delivers inpatient, day rehabilitation, and outpatient services.

[Source: [removed]RIC[/removed]]