Joint replacement rehabilitation outcomes on discharge from skilled nursing facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities

Objective: To compare functional outcomes at discharge across postacute settings.

Design: Prospective observational cohort study.

Setting: Eleven inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), 8 freestanding skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and 1 hospital-based SNF from across the United States.

Participants: Consecutively enrolled patients (N=2152): patients with knee replacement (n=1401) and patients with hip replacement (n=751).

Interventions: None; examination of existing practice patterns.

Main Outcome Measure: FIM discharge motor score.

Results: Freestanding SNF patients entered with higher motor FIM scores and left with higher scores than did IRF patients. IRF patients, however, achieved larger motor FIM gains and achieved them in a shorter time. In multivariate models controlling for patient differences and onset days, IRFs were associated with better discharge motor outcomes, but the overall setting effect was not large. The largest motor FIM differences were between medium-volume IRFs and low-volume freestanding SNFs: 4.6 motor FIM points for patients with knee replacement and 7.3 motor FIM points for patients with hip replacement. Other differences between settings were much smaller. Multivariate models explained between a third and a half of the variance in outcome.

Conclusions: As a group, IRFs had better motor FIM outcomes than did SNFs, but the size of the IRF advantage was not large. Other important facility and practice characteristics also were associated with discharge outcomes after joint replacement rehabilitation. Earlier and more intensive rehabilitation was associated with better outcomes. The volume of joint replacement patients seen by a facility also plays a part: medium-volume facilities among both SNFs and IRFs had better outcomes.