Article

The Hospital Organization Guidelines (HOG) recently recommended
that Reference Hospitals create Post-Acute Rehabilitation Units (PARU). The
authors describe the quality process of a PARU in a University Hospital (UH);
this quality process had previously been used in a private rehabilitation
hospital. GOALS: The authors wanted to evaluate the organization of the care
provided in their PARU and compare the evaluation results with the results
expected at the unit's creation five years earlier. METHODS: The evaluation
indicators were set when the unit was created. These indicators allowed the
evaluation of the appropriateness of admissions, the efficiency of the care path
and the response to the patients' rehabilitation and intensive care needs.
RESULTS: The appropriateness of admission was found to be coherent with the
typology of patients admitted (i.e., brain and spinal cord injured patients just
discharged from intensive care units). The brain-injured care path was
streamlined. The evaluation results raised several questions about the resources
provided and about the different needs of post-acute care and rehabilitation.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Patient needs must be identified precisely if the weak
links of the care path are to be reinforced. The indicators used must be capable
of assessing both the quantity and the quality of care. If these indicators lack
relevance, or if the health care organization responds incompletely to patient
needs, it puts the efficiency of the whole system at stake.
CI - Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS ; FRANCAIS