Palomar Rehabilitation Institute
Inpatient rehabilitation facility · Escondido, CA · Non-profit
Palomar Rehabilitation Institute is an inpatient rehabilitation facility in Escondido, California. It reports treating about 84 spinal cord injury patients a year, and scores 75 out of 100 on the SCI.help rehab quality score, ranking #39 of the 1104 US inpatient rehabilitation facilities CMS publishes enough data to rate.
How the score breaks down
Each CMS measure is converted to a national percentile and direction-normalized so higher is always better. Domain scores are weighted averages of the measures a facility actually reported, so missing data is never scored as worst.
| Domain | Score | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Function at discharge | 76 / 100 | 30% of the overall score |
| Outcomes after discharge | 67 / 100 | 35% of the overall score |
| Safety and infection control | 67 / 100 | 35% of the overall score |
| Process measures | 43 / 100 | not weighted |
Volume and SCI specialization are then folded in, because CMS measures cover all rehabilitation patients rather than spinal cord injury specifically:
| Step | Value | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| CMS quality composite | 69.7 / 100 | 75% of the blend |
| SCI patient volume, as a national percentile | 89 / 100 | 25% of the blend |
| Blended | 75 / 100 | |
| Overall | 75 / 100 | capped at 100 |
Based on 14 of 14 measures reported to CMS.
CMS quality measures
Every measure CMS publishes for this facility, with the national median beside it. Percentile is this facility's standing among all 1221 US inpatient rehabilitation facilities, where 100 is best.
| CMS measure | This facility | National median | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discharge function score (self-care + mobility) Function at discharge | 79.47% | 61.87% | 79 top 21% nationally |
| Discharge self-care score Function at discharge | 74.49% | 60% | 70 top 30% nationally |
| Discharge mobility score Function at discharge | 73.98% | 56.51% | 75 top 25% nationally |
| Successful return to home/community (risk-standardized) Outcomes after discharge · No Different than the National Rate | 69.03% | 67.56% | 63 top 37% nationally |
| Preventable readmission, 30 days after discharge (risk-std) Outcomes after discharge · No Different than the National Rate | 8.26% | 9.16% | 90 top 10% nationally |
| Preventable readmission during the stay (risk-std) Outcomes after discharge · No Different than the National Rate | 4.81% | 4.69% | 43 bottom 43% nationally |
| New or worsened pressure ulcers (risk-adjusted) Safety and infection control | 0.45% | 0.64% | 61 top 39% nationally |
| Catheter-associated UTI (standardized infection ratio) Safety and infection control · No Different than the National Benchmark | 0ratio | 0.8ratio | 86 top 14% nationally |
| C. difficile infection (standardized infection ratio) Safety and infection control · Better than the National Benchmark | 0ratio | 0.17ratio | 78 top 22% nationally |
| Falls with major injury Safety and infection control | 0.09% | 0% | 40 bottom 40% nationally |
| Staff flu vaccination Other | 82.93% | 81.03% | 54 top 46% nationally |
| Medications reviewed with follow-up Other | 99.73% | 99.44% | 64 top 36% nationally |
| Med list given to patient/caregiver Other | 92.78% | 100% | 6 bottom 6% nationally |
| Med list given to next care setting Other | 98.58% | 99.77% | 26 bottom 26% nationally |
Who this facility treats
Annual patient counts by condition, as reported to CMS. Counts under 11 are suppressed by CMS for privacy and appear as "Less than 11".
| Condition treated | Patients per year |
|---|---|
| Hip or knee replacement, amputation or other bone or joint condition | 266 |
| All other conditions | 250 |
| Stroke | 235 |
| Brain disease or condition (non-traumatic) | 138 |
| Hip or femur fracture | 132 |
| Nervous system disorder (excluding stroke) | 113 |
| Brain injury (traumatic) | 99 |
| Spinal cord disease or condition (non-traumatic) | 61 |
| Spinal cord injury (traumatic) | 23 |
Contact and details
| Address | 2181 West Citracado Parkway, Escondido, CA, 92029 |
| Phone | (502) 596-6505 |
| CMS provider name | PALOMAR REHABILITATION INSTITUTE |
| CMS Certification Number | 053043 |
| Ownership | Non-profit |
Phone numbers in the CMS provider file are sometimes a corporate or billing line rather than the rehab unit. Call and ask for the spinal cord injury program directly.
Three questions to ask this facility
- "How many spinal cord injury patients are on the unit right now?" The CMS figure above is a year old by the time it publishes.
- "What is your protocol for autonomic dysreflexia?" A specialized unit answers instantly. See the AD protocol.
- "Will I leave with the right wheelchair ordered?" Ask whether seating evaluation happens in-house.
The full list, and what the answers should sound like, is in choosing an SCI rehab facility and what to ask before discharge.
Other SCI rehab options in California
- Tri-City Medical Center, Oceanside · 12 mi · 40/100
- Sharp Memorial Rehabilitation Center, San Diego · 19 mi · 69/100
- Grossmont Hospital Sharp, La Mesa · 22 mi · 53/100
- South Bay Rehabilitation Ctr, National City · 29 mi · 38/100
- Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Murrie, Murrieta · 35 mi · 69/100
- Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo · 47 mi · 60/100
See all inpatient rehab facilities in California that treat spinal cord injury →
Where this data comes from
Facility data on this page is from CMS Care Compare — Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) QRP, Provider Data Mar 2026, published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and processed 2026-06-08. CARF Spinal Cord System of Care status is from CARF's public provider directory. SCI Model System designation is from the federally funded SCI Model Systems program. The 100-point score is calculated by SCI.help; the full methodology and the underlying dataset are public.
A quality score is a starting point, not a recommendation. CMS measures cover all rehabilitation patients, not spinal cord injury specifically, and no public dataset captures how good a program is at SCI in particular. Use this to build a shortlist, then call and ask the questions above.