At Hospital for Special Care, an exceptional staff of highly-skilled medical professionals works together with one ultimate goal in mind – to rebuild lives. Hospital for Special Care, a private, not-for-profit institution located in Greater Hartford, in the city of New Britain first opened its doors as a teaching facility in 1941. Today, HSC is the leading rehabilitation and chronic disease facility in the Greater Hartford region.

Both the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission (CARF) accredit the hospital programs, which include accreditation in: comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation, spinal cord injury, inpatient brain injury programs, outpatient rehabilitation, and the outpatient work-injury rehabilitation program. Hospital for Special Care is affiliated with the University of Connecticut as a teaching hospital.

The hospital's management model brings together doctors, nurses, therapists, administrators, and other health care professionals working in teams to focus on specific patient needs. Patient-care teams work in centralized settings to maximize interaction and communication between caregivers, patients, and their families. To support the hospital's mission 'to provide exemplary rehabilitation and continuing medical care with the active involvement of our patients and their families, HSC is organized into three services: inpatient and out-patient rehabilitation, respiratory, and medically complex pediatrics.

Leading HSC's multidisciplinary approach to providing the highest quality of care is a staff physiatrist, a physician with a specialty in re- habilitation and physical medicine. In addition, a case manager coordinates care during a patient's hospital stay, serving as a patient advocate and someone to whom the patient, family, and professional team can look for support and information.

HSC's rehabilitation services offer both inpatient and outpatient programs designed to help patients with complex orthopedic and neurological problems become as independent as possible. Staffed by an interdisciplinary team of professionals, including a cadre of highly-skilled physical, occupational, speech, and recreation therapists, the hospital's rehabilitation unit provides programs for people needing acute rehabilitation due to serious illness or physical trauma; longer-term inpatient neurobehavioral and chronic care programs; and numerous outpatient services, from daylong, multi-therapy sessions to hour-long sessions for chronic back pain. The unit also features a daily living apartment where patients and their families can simulate the home environment prior to their discharge.

The hospital's multilevel respiratory services treat individuals with serious breathing problems resulting from neuromuscular conditions, stroke, and pulmonary disease. To maximize the treatment of various conditions, HSC offers three levels of care: the Close Observation Unit (COU), offering complex medical care for patients needing advanced technological intervention; the Respiratory Care Unit -- including the nation's largest unit for ventilator-dependent patients -- for patients needing ventilator assistance on a 24-hour basis; and the Respiratory Step Down Unit, for people requiring artificial ventilation on a less intensive basis. Respiratory services also include a nationally recognized regional weaning center, where patients transition from long-term mechanical ventilation toward regaining their independence.

HSC is one of 20 participating organizations in a study by the National Association of Long-Term Hospitals to analyze weaning outcomes for ventilator-dependent patients. Since 1994, HSC’s COU has achieved a 70 percent success rate in weaning outcomes. Nationally the success rate is about 55 percent. A multi-center weaning outcome study is a major breakthrough in the long-term hospital business.

Hospital for Special Care’s pediatric services offer cares for children with severe and complex health problems, including those who are technology dependent. The unit is comprised of a dedicated team of experts focusing solely on the requirements of the hospital's youngest patients. Treatment on the pediatric unit is highly individualized, with lengths of stay ranging from a few days to more than a year. The goal for every child, regardless of his or her length of stay, or the complexity of the child's illness, is to get back home.