SI-PL-1202

Sunday 08:50, Palau de Congressos, Hall 2, Room D

THE CHALLENGE OF CHOOSING APPROPRIATE CANDIDATES FOR SHORT STAY INPATIENT REHABILITATION – EXPERIENCES OF A NEWLY FORMED UNIT. Furman,M; Jonah,P; Kohlberger,K; St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. PURPOSE: The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the admission criteria and selection process that were developed by a newly-established 10 bed general inpatient rehabilitation unit with a maximum length of stay of 14 days and discharge destination to an independent community setting. A description of the patient population that was selected based on these admission criteria from April to June 2002 will also be presented. RELEVANCE: Choosing appropriate candidates, who can benefit from short stay inpatient rehabilitation services, can be challenging. As an integral part of the interdisciplinary team, it is critical for the physical therapist to be able to identify the patients who can benefit from such a rehabilitation program. DESCRIPTION: The development of admission criteria, selection process, and education program for referral sources will be presented. In addition, description of the client population based on a review of 72 consecutive cases (47 females, 25 males, age range 32-93 years) will be presented. Specific characteristics of unsuccessful candidates will also be discussed. OBSERVATIONS: Establishing clear admission criteria and educating referral sources on client selection greatly facilitate choosing appropriate rehabilitation candidates. An interdisciplinary team approach to review of applications further assists the process. For questionable applications, the rehabilitation team establishes communication with the referring units and screens potential candidates. Descriptive statistics revealed that 53% of the candidates had orthopedic primary diagnoses, 22% general medicine, 10% neurological, 10% general de-conditioning, and 5% had other surgical conditions. Of the 72 clients, only four (5.5%) failed the rehabilitation program. Three were transferred to an acute unit due to unstable medical conditions or the need for nursing care that was beyond the capabilities of the rehabilitation unit. One client did not meet the mobility goals to enable safe discharge to an independent living environment. This client presented with low pre-admission functional status and a degree of dementia. CONCLUSION: It is possible to offer short stay inpatient rehabilitation with positive outcomes to a wide range of patient populations by applying a sound selection process. Further prospective studies examining the predictive value of patient characteristics would further assist selecting appropriate candidates for rehabilitation programs.