The Value and Role of the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility: Association of Academic Physiatrists Position Statement

Abstract

Although healthcare is always changing, the inpatient rehabilitation facility has indispensable and enduring roles in patient care, medical education, and research. For patients with complex medical and functional limitations, inpatient rehabilitation facility-level care fosters recovery and community reintegration and plays a strategic role in optimizing healthcare transitions from acute and to postacute settings. It is an incomparable and distinct zone for interprofessional education: the healthcare system is dependent on the inpatient rehabilitation facility as the epicenter for instruction to healthcare professionals on how to care for patients with complex rehabilitation needs. As healthcare evolves, patients' increasing medical complexity requires ongoing research focused on patients' evolving healthcare needs. The inpatient rehabilitation facility alone offers the requisite infrastructure to support such discovery. In this Association of Academic Physiatrists Position Paper, we provide a fresh perspective on the value proposition of the inpatient rehabilitation facility and advocate for this unique clinical environment as a critical component of contemporary healthcare.