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Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston and Sheltering Arms Institute in Virginia serve as beacons of possibility along the East Coast’s I-95. But out west, the new Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital in Salt Lake City and the renovation of the stalwart Craig Hospital in the Denver suburbs provide equally insightful windows into the benefits of listening to, and incorporating input from, the disability community.

Craig Hospital

Craig Hospital has been on the cutting edge of SCI/D and brain injury rehabilitation since its foundation in 1956. But after almost 60 years, the facility was in dire need of a facelift.

From 2012-2016, the Craig Hospital Foundation spent nearly $90 million on an 84,000-square-foot renovation of its west building because the HVAC unit was dripping water on people’s heads. However, once the HVAC was fixed, Craig decided to take the renovation further to include feedback from those it serves. The hospital took patients through mock-ups that included inpatient rooms and bathrooms in search of ways to make their stays more comfortable and productive.

“We involved both brain injury and spinal cord injury patients in giving us feedback,” says Dana Polonsky, Craig’s vice president of clinical services. “It wasn’t as formal as having a panel, picking out specific people or reaching out to the wider community for specific feedback.” Instead, the renovation took place in the midst of everyday activities so therapists could take patients through and get their feedback. The end result was 52 private rooms with sip-and-puff and eye-and-motion controls for TVs, window shades, lighting and audio. The facility also now has two pools, two gyms and completely-overhauled elevators and electrical systems.

“The focus was way bigger than improving our HVAC — it was about improving the experience. We want a family atmosphere, and we don’t want people to feel like they’re in a hospital,” says Polonsky.

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The Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital

The new Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital opened in May 2020 on the University of Utah campus. It took incorporating former patient input to a whole other level, as it was funded by the foundation of its namesake, Craig H. Neilsen.

Neilsen held two degrees from the University, and he received care in the campus’ old rehabilitation hospital after he was paralyzed in 1985. In 2017, his foundation donated $47.5 million to fund the 172,000-square-foot campus. His son, Ray Neilsen, is the chairperson of the board of directors for the foundation and explained the massive investment to the Daily Utah Chronicle, “My dad wanted to make a difference,” he said. “He knew the challenges of living with spinal cord injury.”

The desire to alleviate these challenges is evident throughout the hospital’s design. It features 75 “smart” patient rooms that allow iPad or voice control of the HVAC, lighting, blinds and television. In addition to all the standard rooms and labs a rehab center has, there are two indoor gyms and an exterior balcony gym with a garden and putting green. That’s not even mentioning the first-in-the-nation, climate-controlled mobility garage where patients can drive in any vehicle, including their own, and practice skills like transferring and using hand controls. There is also adapted recreational equipment available for therapeutic purposes.

“We can literally put people using ventilators on indoor Alpine or Nordic ski simulators, or on an electric-assist handcycle, and they can use it in a controlled way, in this garage,” says Jeffrey Rosenbluth, medical director of the Spinal Cord Injury Acute Rehabilitation Program at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center. “We got some of these ideas from the other rehab centers we visited and certainly from our patients but brought it all together in this unique building.”

Neilsen also built a fabrication lab where University of Utah engineering students and staff can build any adaptive equipment, from braces to cervical collars, and test them with people in real time as soon as they are built. “Instead of basic core research, we’re doing real-time innovation — deploying students every day and actually listening to and prioritizing patient needs,” says Rosenbluth. “Not just inpatient, but out in the community — recognizing that they’re in the hospital for such a short part of their life.”

See also: Building A Better Rehab Hospital