Our History

Sheltering Arms and VCU Health have come together to create Sheltering Arms Institute, a non-profit, state-of-the-science destination inpatient rehabilitation hospital and network of outpatient centers. Located in Richmond, Virginia, Sheltering Arms Institute is the top-ranked physical rehabilitation provider in Virginia and among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report.

Sheltering Arms and VCU Health formed Sheltering Arms Institute with a shared vision—to reinvent rehabilitation for life beyond limits. With our combined clinical experience, research funding, commitment to innovation, and collective passion, we’ve created a superior physical rehabilitation experience to help individuals achieve their best recoveries following strokes, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, limb loss, burns, transplants, and more, as well as those in need of general rehabilitation for orthopedic conditions and various neurological diseases and disorders.

We offer a comprehensive array of services, including physical, occupational, speech, recreation, respiratory, and music therapy; care management; chaplaincy; physician, psychology, and nursing services; nutrition and dietary counseling; and more. Sheltering Arms Institute also continually develops research and education programs to enhance functional outcomes for patients while training future generations of rehabilitation professionals.

With more than 200 years of combined Sheltering Arms and VCU Health Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation experience, Sheltering Arms Institute serves more than 12,000 individuals and their families each year from across Central Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic region, and beyond.

Even though the Institute’s inpatient rehab hospital recently opened in 2020, we have already achieved incredible accomplishments, including:

  • Serving more than 10,000 patients from 27 states through our inpatient rehabilitation hospital
  • Helping our patients achieve functional outcome measures in the top 14% nationally and 78% return home after completing hospital rehab, higher than both national and regional averages (Source: eRehabData®)
  • Being one of only nine centers in the nation to hold both spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury model systems status
  • Hosting training for more than 300 students annually across multiple disciplines, including physical, occupational, speech, and recreation therapists, nurses, and physical medicine & rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians
  • Creating a network of community partners to foster relationships, adaptive strategies, and coordination of services for our patients’ continued care

Together, we’re improving the quality of life in the communities we serve and shaping the future of physical rehabilitation.