Acute rehospitalisation during the first 3 months of in-patient rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury.

Objective: Unplanned re-admission to acute care hospitals during in-patient rehabilitation causes disruption to the rehabilitation program and increases the cost of health care. The aims of the present study were to identify the frequency, reasons and duration of disruption to rehabilitation because of acute re-admissions during the first 3 months of in-patient rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to investigate the correlation between the duration of acute rehospitalisation and the discharge functional independence measure (FIM) score.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on patients admitted for in-patient rehabilitation following TBI to a rehabilitation hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, between January 2009 and August 2013.