State-of-the-science on postacute rehabilitation: measurement and methodologies for assessing quality and establishing policy for postacute care.

We present an overview of commonly used postacute outcome measures and review new methodologies for postacute assessment. We question the impact that current measurement has had on improvement of quality of postacute care (PAC) and its utility in informing health policy. We suggest that Donabedian's model of health care quality should be endorsed for measurement. Specifically, measurement of outcomes and process should be used jointly in assessment of PAC.