May 12, 2017 – Outpatient Rehab

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Anchor lead: Does rehabilitation following surgery really need to be inpatient? Elizabeth Tracey reports

How do inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs compare after someone has had a knee replacement? A recent study showed that outpatient programs delivered primarily online were just as good as those done in the hospital. Pablo Celnik, director of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins, says the time to modify rehab has come.

Celnik: We can initiate some of these rehabilitations earlier in the process which I think will ultimately reduce the need for patients to stay in the hospital. We may be able to prevent admissions to rehabilitation and then some of the patients we would be able to get them into a little bit better situation then we move them to the outpatient setting, to then deliver care at that level. So I think there is a huge way that we can transform the traditional inpatient rehab. :21

Celnik says what’s needed is a change in hospital culture for both providers and patients, with patients expecting to begin rehabilitation perhaps even before their procedure and most certainly immediately afterward, rather than remaining mostly bedridden during their hospital stay. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.