OBJECTIVES: For millions of disabled older adults each year, postacute care in skilled nursing facilities is a brief window of opportunity to regain enough function to return home and live independently. Too often this goal is not achieved, possibly because of therapy that is inadequately intense or engaging. This study tested Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation, an intervention designed to increase patient engagement in, and intensity of, daily physical and occupational therapy sessions in postacute-care rehabilitation. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial of Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation versus standard-of-care rehabilitation. SETTING:Postacute care unit of a skilled nursing facility in St Louis, MO. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-six older adults admitted from a hospital for postacute rehabilitation. INTERVENTION: Based on models of motivation and behavior change, Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation is a set of behavioral skills for physical and occupational therapists that increase patient engagement and intensity, with the goal of improving functional outcome, through (1) a patient-directed, interactive approach, (2) increased rehabilitation intensity, and (3) frequent feedback to patients on their effort and progress. MEASUREMENTS: Therapy intensity: assessment of patient active time in therapy sessions. Therapy engagement: Rehabilitation Participation Scale. Functional and performance outcomes: Barthel Index, gait speed, and 6-minute walk. RESULTS: Participants randomized to Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation had higher intensity therapy and were more engaged in their rehabilitation sessions; they had more improvement in gait speed (improving from 0.08 to 0.38 m/s versus 0.08 to 0.22 in standard of care, P = .003) and 6-minute walk (from 73 to 266 feet versus 40 to 94 feet in standard of care, P = .026), with a trend for better improvement of Barthel Index (+43 points versus 26 points in standard of care, P = .087), compared with participants randomized to standard-of-care rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Higher intensity and patient engagement in the postacute rehabilitation setting is achievable, with resultant better functional outcomes for older adults. Findings should be confirmed in a larger randomized controlled trial.
RCT Entities:
OBJECTIVES: For millions of disabled older adults each year, postacute care in skilled nursing facilities is a brief window of opportunity to regain enough function to return home and live independently. Too often this goal is not achieved, possibly because of therapy that is inadequately intense or engaging. This study tested Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation, an intervention designed to increase patient engagement in, and intensity of, daily physical and occupational therapy sessions in postacute-care rehabilitation. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial of Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation versus standard-of-care rehabilitation. SETTING: Postacute care unit of a skilled nursing facility in St Louis, MO. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-six older adults admitted from a hospital for postacute rehabilitation. INTERVENTION: Based on models of motivation and behavior change, Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation is a set of behavioral skills for physical and occupational therapists that increase patient engagement and intensity, with the goal of improving functional outcome, through (1) a patient-directed, interactive approach, (2) increased rehabilitation intensity, and (3) frequent feedback to patients on their effort and progress. MEASUREMENTS: Therapy intensity: assessment of patient active time in therapy sessions. Therapy engagement: Rehabilitation Participation Scale. Functional and performance outcomes: Barthel Index, gait speed, and 6-minute walk. RESULTS:Participants randomized to Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation had higher intensity therapy and were more engaged in their rehabilitation sessions; they had more improvement in gait speed (improving from 0.08 to 0.38 m/s versus 0.08 to 0.22 in standard of care, P = .003) and 6-minute walk (from 73 to 266 feet versus 40 to 94 feet in standard of care, P = .026), with a trend for better improvement of Barthel Index (+43 points versus 26 points in standard of care, P = .087), compared with participants randomized to standard-of-care rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Higher intensity and patient engagement in the postacute rehabilitation setting is achievable, with resultant better functional outcomes for older adults. Findings should be confirmed in a larger randomized controlled trial.
Authors: Kathleen B Kortte; Lara D Falk; Renan C Castillo; Doug Johnson-Greene; Stephen T Wegener Journal: Arch Phys Med Rehabil Date: 2007-07 Impact factor: 3.966
Authors: Dawn E Alley; Gregory E Hicks; Michelle Shardell; William Hawkes; Ram Miller; Rebecca L Craik; Kathleen K Mangione; Denise Orwig; Marc Hochberg; Barbara Resnick; Jay Magaziner Journal: J Am Geriatr Soc Date: 2011-08-24 Impact factor: 5.562
Authors: Ellen F Binder; Marybeth Brown; David R Sinacore; Karen Steger-May; Kevin E Yarasheski; Kenneth B Schechtman Journal: JAMA Date: 2004-08-18 Impact factor: 56.272
Authors: Robert E Burke; Emily A Whitfield; David Hittle; Sung-joon Min; Cari Levy; Allan V Prochazka; Eric A Coleman; Robert Schwartz; Adit A Ginde Journal: J Am Med Dir Assoc Date: 2015-12-20 Impact factor: 4.669
Authors: Daniel E Forman; Ross Arena; Rebecca Boxer; Mary A Dolansky; Janice J Eng; Jerome L Fleg; Mark Haykowsky; Arshad Jahangir; Leonard A Kaminsky; Dalane W Kitzman; Eldrin F Lewis; Jonathan Myers; Gordon R Reeves; Win-Kuang Shen Journal: Circulation Date: 2017-03-23 Impact factor: 29.690
Authors: Allison M Gustavson; Jason R Falvey; Jeri E Forster; Jennifer E Stevens-Lapsley Journal: J Geriatr Phys Ther Date: 2019 Jul/Sep Impact factor: 3.381
Authors: Helen H Host; Catherine E Lang; Mary W Hildebrand; Dequan Zou; Ellen F Binder; Carolyn M Baum; Kenneth E Freedland; Nancy Morrow-Howell; Eric J Lenze Journal: Phys Occup Ther Geriatr Date: 2014-06
Authors: William M M Levack; Mark Weatherall; E Jean C Hay-Smith; Sarah G Dean; Kathryn McPherson; Richard J Siegert Journal: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Date: 2015-07-20