What is 'successful rehabilitation'? A multi-stakeholder nominal group technique study to inform rehabilitation outcome measurement.
Sarah J Wallace, Amandine Barnett, Bonnie By Cheng and 3 others
PMID 36785902WHAT IT FOUND
Clinicians, managers and consumer representatives defined successful rehabilitation as person and family centred above all else.
They prioritised individualised care, interprofessional teamwork and meaningful goals over standardised metrics. This suggests routine outcome measures should capture patient experience and context, not just impairment.
Key findings
01Person and family centred care was the most dominant theme, with participants emphasising that rehabilitation must be individualised and consider the patient within their family and community context.
02Stakeholders identified interprofessional collaboration as essential, noting that successful rehabilitation requires working across disciplines rather than in silos, with the patient as a key team member.
03Accessibility and equity were highlighted as critical, with concerns raised about geographical location and communication disabilities inhibiting timely access to specialist rehabilitation.
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
The study used purposive sampling from a single metropolitan health service in Australia, so findings may not apply to rural, remote, or international contexts. Consumer representatives were likely a proactive group inclined towards agency, which may bias results against the views of patients who prefer more passive roles. The small sample size (n=31) and focus on sub-acute rehabilitation limit the generalisability of these themes to all rehabilitation settings. Online-only participation may have excluded individuals with significant digital literacy issues or severe physical impairments that prevented Zoom use, despite support measures.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding was provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Menzies Health Institute Queensland, and Metro North Hospital and Health Service/University of Queensland Collaborative Research Grant.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as validated outcome measures. The study explored how stakeholders conceptualise success to inform future dataset development; it did not test whether these concepts can be reliably measured or whether using them improves patient care.