The impact of delays in transfer to specialist rehabilitation on outcomes in patients with acquired brain injury.

To determine the effect of time waiting for admission to inpatient neurorehabilitation following acquired brain injury on rehabilitation outcomes. A retrospective observational case series. A specialist brain injury inpatient rehabilitation service. Consecutive 235 admissions to specialist brain injury rehabilitation following acutely-acquired brain injury between 2019 and 2022. Waiting time from the point of injury to admission, diagnostic category, admission complexity (patient categorisation tool), functional status (functional independence measure/functional attainment measure), care needs (Northwick Park Care Needs Assessment), change in functional status and care needs over duration of admission (efficiency). Subgroup analysis was performed for patients with a tracheostomy, enteral feeding, anticonvulsant treatment and prior neurosurgery. There was no relationship between admission wait and initial complexity ( Longer wait for transfer to rehabilitation following brain injury is associated with reduced improvement in functional status and care needs over time. Attention should be given to ensuring rapid transfer into inpatient rehabilitation services.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.