Rehabilitation hospitals in Illinois

Illinois has 3 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, plus 33 general hospitals with an inpatient rehabilitation unit that reports to Medicare.

Inpatient rehabilitation hospitals (IRFs) provide intensive therapy after a stroke, brain or spinal cord injury, amputation, major joint replacement or a long hospital stay. Patients generally need to be able to take part in about three hours of physical, occupational or speech therapy a day, five days a week, under a doctor's supervision. Many general hospitals run a rehab unit that Medicare certifies and measures separately, so those are listed too. The key results to compare are how many patients return home and how many end up back in hospital.

Silver Cross Hospital has the highest returned home rate reported in Illinois: 80%, against 67% nationally. Rates from small facilities can swing a lot from year to year, and Medicare publishes several measures for each facility, so compare the ones that matter most to you on each hospital's page.

On returned home, CMS rates 4 Illinois facilities better than the national rate and 5 worse; the rest are no different or have too few patients to compare.