CHARACTERISTICS OF PATIENTS FROM HOSPITAL-BASED INPATIENT REHABILITATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

The University Hospital Dijkzigt in Rotterdam is one of the first hosp itals in The Netherlands to have a rehabilitation department providing multidisciplinary, hospital-based in-patient rehabilitation (HBIR). T he main goals of HBIR are to estimate the final optimum level of patie nt's functioning, to investigate the most appropriate treatment settin g to achieve this and to fulfil requirements for discharge from hospit al as soon as possible. One of the central issues in rehabilitation in the Netherlands is to obtain more insight into the current daily prac tice of HBIR. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristic s of the patients treated in HBIR in Dijkzigt Hospital. Registered dat a from 1967 HBIR patients treated between 1988 and 1990 were analysed retrospectively. The patients were on average 53.1 (+/- 19.7) years ol d; the men (63%) were significantly younger than the women (mean age o f 50.8 and 57.0 years, respectively). The main diagnostic groups were stroke (27%), progressive and regressive neurological conditions (17%) , hand injuries (9%), spinal cord lesion (9%), orthopaedic injuries (8 %) and amputation of lower extremity (8%). The median duration of HBIR and hospitalization were 13 days and 33 days, respectively. Most pati ents were discharged home (63%), or to a nursing home (14%) or a rehab ilitation centre (8%). The results of this study can be used in policy discussions on HBIR and provides a description of the population whic h needs to be studied longitudinally in future research on the outcome s of HBIR.