Fracture recovery is the rehabilitation that happens after the bone heals — and it’s the phase most patients don’t realize they need until they try to use the injured body part and discover it doesn’t work the way it used to. Every week in a cast, splint, or sling costs range of motion and muscle mass. A six-week wrist fracture immobilization can leave the wrist 50 percent stiffer and the forearm 30 percent weaker than the other side. A hip fracture in an older adult — one of the most common fall injuries in Florida — can take away the ability to walk independently if rehab doesn’t start early and progress aggressively. At Dolphin Pointe, our fracture recovery program targets the specific deficits each fracture type creates. We serve both inpatient patients recovering from surgically repaired fractures and outpatient clients whose casts have been removed and need structured rehab to restore function. Our facility in Jacksonville’s Arlington neighborhood gives fracture patients access to a full therapy gym, two heated aquatic therapy pools, and one-on-one sessions with a licensed physical therapist.

Our fracture recovery program addresses three deficits that every period of immobilization creates: lost range of motion, lost muscle strength, and lost functional coordination. Range of motion work starts immediately — your therapist uses manual joint mobilization, progressive stretching, and active assisted exercises to break up the adhesions and joint capsule stiffness that formed during immobilization. This is hands-on work, not a printed stretch sheet. For hip and ankle fractures, gait retraining is a primary focus — correcting the limp pattern the body developed to protect the fracture site and rebuilding the confidence to bear full weight on the healed leg. Our underwater treadmill in our aquatic therapy pools lets hip and ankle fracture patients practice walking with reduced body weight in warm water — building stride length, cadence, and symmetry weeks before those movements would be tolerable at full gravity.

For wrist and hand fractures, our occupational therapy team provides specialized hand therapy — grip strengthening, finger dexterity exercises, and functional retraining for tasks like writing, typing, opening containers, and using utensils. For shoulder fractures, we restore overhead reach, rotation, and the ability to dress, wash your hair, and reach cabinets. For vertebral compression fractures — common in older adults with osteoporosis — our spine rehabilitation team addresses core stabilization, posture retraining, and pain management while protecting the healing vertebra. Every fracture type gets its own protocol. Every patient gets a program built around the specific joint, the specific fracture, and the specific functions they need to recover. Patients from Arlington, University Park, Fairways Forest, and across Jacksonville are referred to our fracture recovery program by orthopedic surgeons, ER physicians, and primary care doctors after both surgical and non-surgical fracture management.

Falls are the leading cause of fractures in adults over 65 — and Duval County has one of the highest fall-injury rates in Florida. Hip fractures are the most serious. An older adult who fractures a hip and doesn’t receive structured rehabilitation has a significantly higher risk of permanent disability, nursing home placement, and mortality within the first year. That’s not an abstract statistic. It’s the reality that orthopedic surgeons see in Jacksonville every week. The patients who receive early, aggressive, milestone-driven fracture rehab are the ones who walk again, go home, and maintain their independence. The patients who don’t receive it — or receive it too late — often don’t recover fully.

Beyond hip fractures, wrist fractures from falls and ankle fractures from uneven surfaces are among the most common orthopedic injuries treated in Duval County emergency rooms. Many patients leave the ER with a cast and a follow-up appointment but no rehab referral. They assume the bone heals and the function comes back on its own. It doesn’t. Without structured rehabilitation, the stiffness and weakness that immobilization created become permanent limitations. At Dolphin Pointe, fracture recovery is a focused program within our orthopedic rehabilitation clinic — with its own evaluation, its own progression milestones, and coordination with our balance training program for patients whose fracture was caused by a fall (because preventing the next fall is as important as recovering from this one). Families from Colony Cove, Woodmere, Springfield, San Marco, Mandarin, and across Duval County choose Dolphin Pointe for fracture recovery because we treat the full picture — the fracture, the deconditioning, and the fall risk that caused it.

1. Referral and fracture-specific evaluation. Your orthopedic surgeon or physician sends a referral with imaging and weight-bearing status. Your therapist evaluates range of motion, strength, swelling, gait (for lower body fractures), and hand function (for upper body fractures) — comparing the injured side to the uninjured side to set specific recovery targets.

2. Hands-on range of motion restoration. Your therapist uses manual joint mobilization, progressive stretching, and active exercises to restore the motion that immobilization took away. This is the most time-sensitive phase — the longer adhesions and joint stiffness are left untreated, the harder they are to break through. Sessions are typically two to three times per week for outpatient, daily for inpatient.

3. Strengthening and functional retraining. As range of motion returns, your therapist adds progressive strengthening for the muscles around the fracture site and functional practice — walking, gripping, reaching, climbing stairs, or whatever movements your daily life requires. Aquatic therapy supports this phase for hip, ankle, and knee fractures by letting you load the leg gradually in a controlled environment.

4. Symmetry testing and discharge. Your therapist compares the injured side to the uninjured side at regular intervals. When strength, range of motion, and function reach symmetry — or reach the highest level your healing allows — you’re discharged with a home exercise program. If a balance assessment identifies ongoing fall risk, we transition you to our balance training program before discharge. Your surgeon receives a full progress report.

Fracture recovery is part of our orthopedic rehabilitation program at Dolphin Pointe Health Care. We also offer joint replacement rehab, arthritis management, and spine rehabilitation under our orthopedic clinic in Jacksonville, FL.

A healed bone isn’t a recovered body. If your cast, splint, or surgical pins came off and the joint still won’t move the way it should, structured rehabilitation is how you get it back. Call 904-914-8801 to schedule your first fracture recovery session. We serve patients from Arlington, University Park, Springfield, San Marco, Riverside, Mandarin, Orange Park, Regency, Downtown Jacksonville, and the Beaches communities.

Dolphin Pointe Health Care
5355 Dolphin Point Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32211
Phone: 904-914-8801
Open 24 Hours