Article

Canada's Best Practice Recommendations for Stroke Care state that a
minimum of one hour per day of each of the relevant core therapies be provided to
patients admitted for inpatient rehabilitation. We examined whether this standard
was met on a single, specialized stroke rehabilitation unit and if amount of
therapy was an independent contributor to functional improvement. METHODS:
One-hundred and twenty-three, consecutive patients admitted to a 30-bed stroke
rehabilitation program over a 6-month period with the confirmed diagnosis of
stroke, were included. Workload measurement data were used to estimate the amount
of therapy that patients received from core therapists during their inpatient stay. A multivariable model to predict Functional Independence Measure (FIM)
gains achieved was also developed using variables that were significantly
correlated with functional gain on univariate analysis. RESULTS: On average,
patients received 37 min of active therapy from both physiotherapists (PT) and
occupational therapists (OT) and 13 min from speech-language pathologists per
day. Admission FIM, length of stay, total OT and PT therapy time (hrs) were
significantly correlated with FIM gain. In the final model, which explained 35%
of the variance, admission FIM score and total amount of occupational therapy
(OT) emerged as significant predictors of FIM gain. CONCLUSIONS: Patients
admitted to a specialized rehabilitation unit received an average of 37 min a day
engaged in therapeutic activities with both occupational and physical therapists.
Although this value did not reach the standard of one hour, total amount of OT
time contributed significantly to gains in FIM points during hospital stay.

Langue : ANGLAIS