Prediction of Discharge Destination After Inpatient Rehabilitation for Stroke Using Mobility and Self-Care Assessment in Section GG of the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility - Patient Assessment Instrument.

Objective: To determine the ability of Section GG of the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility - Patient Assessment Inventory (Section GG)'s quantification of mobility and self-care to predict discharge destination for persons with stroke after inpatient rehabilitation.

Design: Retrospective, observational cohort study.

Setting: 150-bed inpatient rehabilitation facility within a metropolitan health system.

Participants: Consecutive sample of adults and older adults with stroke admitted for inpatient rehabilitation from January 2020 to June 2021 (N=1051). Subjects were excluded for discharge to acute care or hospice or if they had COVID-19.

Intervention: None.

Main Outcome Measures: Section GG self-care and mobility scores used in reimbursement formulation by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid at admission to inpatient rehabilitation; age; sex; prior living situation; discharge setting. Logistic regression examined binary comparisons of discharge destinations. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves determined cut-off admission Section GG scores for binary comparisons.

Results: Logistic regression demonstrated that presence of a caregiver in the home was consistently the strongest predictor (<.001) and admission Section GG scores were significant secondary factors in determining the discharge destination. An admission Section GG cut-off score of 33.5 determined home with homecare vs skilled nursing facility and a cut-off of 36.5 determined discharge to home with outpatient care vs skilled nursing facility.

Conclusion: Clinicians responsible for discharge decisions for patients with stroke after inpatient rehabilitation might start by determining the presence of a caregiver in the home and then use Section GG cut-off scores to guide decisions about home (with or without homecare) vs SNF destinations. Such guidance is not advised for the home with outpatient services vs home with homecare decision; clinical judgment is needed to determine the best discharge plan because this ROC had a less robust area under the curve. Sex and race/ethnicity were not determining factors for binary choices of discharge destinations.