WNPC Phoenix Neurorehabilitation Wing
The Neurorehabilitation Wing at Doc Weston's West Side follows the Baltimore model -- flexible-configuration floor, sprung wood movement therapy area, modular tiles -- with the most extreme outdoor therapy scheduling constraints in the WNPC network.
From May through October, outdoor rehabilitation is restricted to early morning (before 10 AM, when temperatures are still below 95F) and evening (after 5 PM, when the heat begins to break). During those windows, the shaded desert courtyard provides varied-surface outdoor rehabilitation. During peak heat hours, all therapy is indoor.
The paradox is that from November through April, the Phoenix Neurorehab Wing has the best outdoor therapy conditions in the entire WNPC network -- better than Orlando (which has humidity), better than Baltimore (which has cold), better than Boston or Chicago (which are frozen). Phoenix winters are mild, dry, and sunny, with daytime temperatures in the 60s and 70s that are ideal for outdoor movement work. The winter outdoor therapy sessions are the longest and most comfortable in the network, and the rehabilitation staff schedule the most challenging outdoor rehabilitation work -- extended gait training, wheelchair skills on varied surfaces, outdoor movement therapy -- during the winter months when the climate cooperates.
The indoor space compensates for summer restrictions with high ceilings, natural light from clerestory windows (designed to admit light without admitting heat), and the knowledge that the desert sun outside the window is twelve feet of wall and insulation away.