IRF question

[Guest guest]

Do you have a defined process for " case finding " ? In other words, do you try to

find or identify patients for your inpatient rehab unit or wait for referrals?

If yes, who fulfills this role and what is the process?

Outside referrals---We have a rehab case manager who goes to other facilities

but she doesn't enter the facility unless requested to do so to respond to a

referral.

Internal referrals---We are targeting our own hospital for more admissions. We

really believe that we are missing patients who qualify for IRF. Approx 2-3% of

our admissions come from our own hospital. I'm not counting the patients we

receive from other hospitals in our System.

I heard that the National average is closer to 4-6%. Any insights on this?

What percent do you admit from your own hospital? Not counting other hospitals

within your " System " .

We depend heavily on our acute care PT and OT staff and the acute care social

workers to identify patients and to facilitate the referral. Many of the

Attending physicians are familiar with IRF and do make referrals. Even with

this, we believe we are missing patients.

We are in the process of piloting something on our intensive care unit. Our

rehab case manager is attending the daily bedside rounds(RN, SW, physician is

present) to help identify patients for IRF. So far, we have not received any

more referrals or admissions than before we started attending. We will probably

stop attending and perhaps go to another general medical floor and attend their

rounds.

Lori Stoddart, OTR/L

Inpatient Therapy Manager

Physical Rehabilitation Services

Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital

2333 Biddle Avenue

Wyandotte, MI 48192

734/246-8963

lstodda1@...

Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of

battle

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