By Vishwa S. Raj, MD and Terrence M. Pugh, MD
At Carolinas Rehabilitation, we’ve found that inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) are part of the answer. These facilities deliver medically-supervised cancer treatment, as well as the physical therapy, occupational therapy and/or speech therapy that cancer patients need – at a much lower cost.
In fact, we published a 2018 paper in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation that offers a roadmap of how inpatient rehabilitation can help your patients now – and play an integral role in oncology care’s future.
The appropriate inpatient rehabilitation setting is determined partly by a patient’s medical supervision and rehabilitation needs:
Now for the not-so-good news: Inpatient rehabilitation is governed by regulations that can be hard to navigate, especially when you’re referring cancer patients. Here are three examples:
Nonetheless, there’s a reason to be optimistic: Inpatient rehabilitation is a more cost-effective way to deliver post-acute care. This creates incentives to embrace it as we move toward value-based healthcare delivery.
For example, consider a scenario where a payer specifies a fixed fee for caring for a cancer diagnosis. Healthcare systems could use acute care to address patients’ immediate medical issues, and then transition them to inpatient rehabilitation. This could destress hospitals, improve patients’ performance status, and decrease comorbidities in ways that reduce readmissions.
Here at Carolinas Rehabilitation, we’re leading a conversation not only about inpatient rehabilitation, but about how to structure the oncology continuum as cancer patients live longer. We think our paper is an important start to this conversation, and we’re excited to trade ideas with you about inpatient rehabilitation – and the future of care.
To learn more, read our paper or email Dr. Raj at Vishwa.Raj@AtriumHealth.org or Dr. Pugh at Terrence.Pugh@AtriumHealth.org.