History

The RKU - Universitäts- und Rehabilitationskliniken Ulm formation started in 1969, where the head of Ulm University at that time breathed the wish for having an after-care clinic for victims of an accident by means of a surgical-orthopaedic rehabilitation centre.

The positive decision for building the "RKU - University and Rehabilitation Clinics Ulm" (1980 to 1984) met the acute demand for municipal-near and hospitalised patient care as well as the need of the Ulm University Clinic for neurological and orthopaedic beds. It was stipulated that the senior physicians of the RKU - Universitäts- und Rehabilitationskliniken Ulm were members of the University. The students should be trained in these disciplines as well. In view of the federal action program to foster rehabilitation of the disabled at that time, early and intensive talks were held with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. A working group lead by the city administration of Ulm, with representatives coming from the foundation Rehabilitation Heidelberg, Ulm University, the Baden-Wuerttemberg regional pensions office, the professional associations and the Baden-Wuerttemberg regional employment office, established an indication model, which was imbedded in nationwide planning of that time:

1. Patients suffering from damage to their locomotor system and attitude organs as well as those with neurological disorders should be medically and professionally rehabilitated.
2. Clinic rehabilitation should be enabled for patients following first surgical treatment.
3. Medical and medical-professional rehabilitation of paralysed patients.
4. Care for disabled persons which require a profound assessment of their positive performance ability to become professionally rehabilitated and should thus participate in therapeutic and professional rehabilitation activities.

In cooperation with Ulm University new insights on how to improve orthopaedic and neurological treatment should be gained from a medical as well as professional point of view. The arrangement as set out between the RKU -  Universitäts- und Rehabilitationskliniken Ulm and the Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Science and Arts provides for a close cooperation of both parties, focussing on the implementation of lectures for students of the human medicine disciplines orthopaedics and neurology as well as on orthopaedic and neurological research. Developing rehabilitation medicine forms one further joint objective.

Being assisted by the Baden-Württemberg regional pensions office and in association with Ulm University, the "Sozial- und Arbeitsmedizinische Akademie Baden-Württemberg e.V." was founded in 1977. This acadamy concentrates on the further and advanced training of physicians for social and occupational medicine, even for "health jobs" except physicians and for those persons in charge in working life. The RKU provided this institution with offices and seminar as well as lecture halls.

Since start of operation in September 1984, the RKU has had an orthopaedic department including paraplegic centre, a neurological department, a department for anaesthesia and intensive care as well as a department for medical-professional rehabilitation at its command. Modification during the first few years of operation (implementation of the medical rehabilitation area (AHB) only from 1 Jan. 1986) resulted in structural changes, as outlined in the following status quo, too. An orthopaedic workshop including wheelchair provision for patients being wheelchair-bound is associated to the clinic. Participants of the professional rehabilitation programme are offered a hostel area (boarding home). Being categorised as specialist clinic concerning orthopaedics and neurology, the RKU treats all inborn and acquired diseases from first aid to late-state rehabilitation.