The Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation: Report of Patients with Stroke Discharged from Comprehensive Medical Programs in 2000-2007

Objective: To provide benchmarking information for a large national sample of patients receiving inpatient rehabilitation after a stroke.

Design: Analysis of secondary data from 893 medical rehabilitation facilities located in the United States and contributing information to the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation from 2000 to 2007.

Results: Variables analyzed included demographic information (age, sex, marital status, race/ethnicity, prehospital living setting, and discharge setting), hospitalization information (length of stay, program interruptions, payer, event onset date, rehabilitation impairment group, International Classification of Diseases-9 codes for the admitting diagnosis, and comorbidities), and functional status information (FIM(R) instrument ["FIM"] ratings at admission and discharge, FIM efficiency, and FIM gain). Descriptive statistics revealed that the length of stay decreased from a mean of 19.6 (+/-12.8) days to 16.5 (+/-9.8) days during the 8-yr study period. FIM instrument admission and discharge ratings also decreased. Mean admission ratings decreased from 62.5 (+/-20.1) to 55.1 (+/-19.3), and mean discharge ratings decreased from 86.4 (+/-23.6) to 79.8 (+/-24.0). FIM change remained relatively stable; the mean for the entire sample was 23.9 (+/-14.8). The percent of persons discharged to the community ranged from 75.8% in 2000 to 69.3% in 2007. All results are likely affected by changes in the definition for program interruption and procedures for FIM data collection.

Conclusion: Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation data from persons with stroke receiving rehabilitation from 2000 to 2007 indicate patients are showing improvement in functional independence during their rehabilitation stay, and a large percentage are discharged to community settings.