USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
University of Southern California
University of Southern California
Patient Care
Patient Care
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USC Arcadia Hospital

USC Arcadia Hospital is a 348-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving the central San Gabriel Valley. The Acute Rehabilitation Unit (ARU) at USC Arcadia Hospital provides a comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation program for medically complex patients. The world-class multidisciplinary team works with patients and their families to develop an individualized plan of care that sets achievable goals to improve that patient’s quality of life and facilitate their reintegration to the community. Our ARU is ranked No. 10 in California on Newsweek’s 2025 America’s Best Physical Rehabilitation Centers.

Logo from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities that indicates the ARU id accredited

In the ARU, our occupational therapists collaborate closely with patients and families to build custom care plans for achieving your meaningful goals, including the physical, cognitive, psychological and environmental factors impacting rehabilitation and quality of life.

The ARU is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services, including rehabilitation.

What is Occupational Therapy in our ARU?

  • Enhancing your independence in activities of daily living
  • Improving your functional mobility, balance and coordination
  • Strengthening your cognitive functioning needed for safety and decision-making
  • Supporting your communication, social participation and role resumption
  • Building your strength, endurance and confidence in meaningful routines
  • Preparing for your safe discharge and successful reintegration into home, community, work and other valued roles

Who can benefit from our ARU?

Patients who benefit from treatment in the ARU have:

  • Become medically stable but continue needing supervision and care
  • Diagnosis/diagnoses resulting in functional impairments
  • Functional and/or cognitive impairments interfering with their ability to perform activities of daily living, such as mobility, communication, toileting, bathing, dressing, eating, cooking, etc.
  • Functional impairments requiring a level of assistance greater than supervision
  • Expectations to be discharged home, rather than to a skilled nursing facility or lower level of care
  • Potential to reasonably make progress toward functional independence, with or without durable medical equipment
  • Needs for at least two therapy services (PT, ST, or OT)
  • An ability to tolerate three hours of therapy for 5 days/week, or 15 hours/week (with physician order)

Conditions we treat in our ARU

  • Stroke
  • Brain injury (traumatic and non-traumatic), encephalitis, brain tumor, hypoxic encephalopathy
  • Spinal cord injury (traumatic and non-traumatic)
  • Neurological conditions (multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Guillian-Barre, cerebral palsy, critical illness myopathy, West Nile Virus infection with encephalitis and transverse myelitis)
  • LVAD (left ventricular assist device) and other cardiac disorders (coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure)
  • Solid organ transplant
  • Medically complex conditions
  • Orthopaedic hip and knee replacements
  • Orthopaedic injuries (hip, pelvis, femur or major multiple fractures)
  • Major multiple trauma
  • Limb amputations (upper and lower extremities)
  • Debility
  • Arthritic syndromes
  • Pain services (chronic pain of joints, neck and back; headache; trauma; cancer; post-operative pain)