Rehabilitation Outcomes Among Burn Patients

What is the study about?

This study explored the characteristics and outcomes for burn patients admitted to inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF). The goal of this study was to determine whether re-admitted patients had outcomes different from those who required only one stay.

What did the study find?

The researchers reported that no significant differences were found in four of the outcomes (admission functional status, length of stay, FIM efficiency and discharge disposition) between the repeater and non-repeater groups. There was an inverse relationship between repeater status and total FIM discharge score and change in FIM score. The differences in discharge FIM total and FIM change were small and may not reflect clinically meaningful differences. Burn injury patients who required a second IRF admission had rehabilitation outcomes similar to those who did not require a second IRF admission. The results emphasized the value of inpatient rehabilitation for those with burn injury that require readmission.

Who participated in the study?

This study included 7043 subjects. In total, 188 of the study participants had more than one IRF stay while 6855 had only one stay. Subjects were burn injury patients 18 years or older admitted to IRFs between 2002 and 2011. Patients and cases were excluded if they were discharged against medical advice (n = 40) or came from a facility with a high frequency of zero onset day patients (n = 11).

How was the study conducted?

Researchers looked at data from Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation, a national database. Functional Independence Measure (FIM) was used to assess patients’ functional abilities and rehabilitation results. The outcomes of the repeaters’ second stay (n= 188) were compared to the non-repeaters’ single stay (n= 6,855). The functional outcomes assessed included functional status at admission, discharge, and change, length of stay, FIM Efficiency (Total FIM points gained per day) and discharge disposition.

Reference

DiVita, M. A., Mix, J. M., Goldstein, R., Gerrard, P., Niewczyk, P., Ryan, C. M., Schneider, J. C., et al. (2014). Rehabilitation Outcomes among Burns Patients with a Second Admission to an Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility. PM&R.

The contents of this quick review were developed under a grant (number H133A110004) from the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.