Despite medical recommendations that stroke patients choose inpatient rehabilitation facilities for their post-acute care, significant numbers of patients continue to seek such care in skilled nursing facilities.
And experts do not understand why.
The choices, according to a new study, are based primarily on recommendations by hospitals and are being made despite a recommendation by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association that patients turn to inpatient rehab facilities rather than skilled nursing facilities for post-stroke care. Researchers found no apparent reason for the choices patients make between the two types of facilities.
Learn more about where stroke patients receive their post-discharge care and why they do so in the study Unexplained Variation for Hospitals’ Use of Inpatient Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Facilities After an Acute Ischemic Stroke, which can be found here, on the web site of the journal Stroke.