ABSTRACT

Rehabilitation interventions in the inpatient and outpatient settings are often required in older adults, to facilitate independent living in communities. In the older adult, hospitalization is a risk for disability, leading to decreased ability to live independently at discharge from the hospital. Hospitalization-associated disability occurs in approximately one-third of patients aged above 70 years. The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health is a framework that acknowledges that every human being can experience a decrement in health and thereby experience some degree of disability, thus recognizing disability as a universal and mainstream human experience. Inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF) are freestanding rehabilitation hospitals or acute rehabilitation units attached to an acute hospital. Subacute rehabilitation or skilled nursing facilities are freestanding units attached to an acute hospital or to a long-term care nursing facility. Medicare requires determinations of whether IRF stays are reasonable and necessary based on an assessment of each beneficiary’s individual care needs.