A Descriptive Analysis of Access to Assistive Technology in Children With Acquired Brain Injury: The Right to Assistive Devices.
Joseph J Fins, Julie Knitter, Debjani Mukherjee and 7 others
PMID 37492972WHAT IT FOUND
Only 55% of prescribed assistive devices reached patients, with an average delay of 69.4 days.
Insurance barriers caused most non-deliveries. Clinicians should anticipate significant delays and actively track device status rather than assuming prescriptions are fulfilled.
Key findings
01Just over half of the prescribed assistive devices were documented as delivered to children.
02The average time to device delivery was 69.4 days, with some devices taking up to 250 days.
03Approximately 42% of non-delivered devices were attributed to insurance coverage difficulties.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This was a single-site retrospective study, so results may not reflect other hospitals or regions. The medical record was not designed to track devices longitudinally, meaning actual delivery rates might be higher than documented if deliveries occurred outside the hospital system. The sample size was small, preventing comparisons between different types of brain injury. Data was missing for 39 devices, leaving the true non-delivery rate uncertain.
Declared interests
The research was supported by non-U.S. government and NIH extramural grants. No commercial conflicts of interest were explicitly declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the 55% delivery rate means 45% of devices were definitively denied. The study notes that the medical record was not designed to track devices, so many undelivered items may have been provided through channels not captured in the hospital's database.