Follow-up with a spinal cord injury (SCI) expert is important throughout your lifetime. Your spinal cord injury physician knows about your specific injury and all of the problems that you may have experienced related to your injury.
All persons with spinal cord injury should plan to follow-up with a spinal cord injury physician in the first few weeks after being discharged from the hospital. This includes:
- Patients with new spinal cord injuries.
- Patients who have been discharged to another facility.
After a new spinal cord injury, it is often important to see a SCI specialist in clinic every few months. Over time, it may only be necessary to see your spinal cord injury physician once a year.
Anytime you are discharged from the hospital or are seen in an outpatient clinic, it is important to save any discharge instructions to reference at home. This information should also be shared with your primary care physician, personal care assistants, caregivers, therapists, or any other health care worker who is involved in your care. The more information that is shared between your health care team, the better they are able to help you.