Too many stroke patients miss out on the window to regain crucial functions

Too many stroke patients in Canada are not getting the rehabilitation they need to return to a healthy, active life, according to a new study which will be presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress in Vancouver tomorrow. The research findings strongly suggest that such decisions are being made based on what services are available in the health system rather than what patients really need. It found that overall just 16 per cent of patients with stroke were discharged to inpatient rehabilitation but that the rates varied widely by province (1% to 26%) and hospital (0% to 48%). Meanwhile, some of the people who do get rehabilitation don't need it. And those who do get rehabilitation don't always get the right amount of services.

Stroke experts agree that about 40 per cent of stroke patients would benefit from rehabilitation which takes place in a specialized rehabilitation unit where patients stay for one to several weeks following discharge from acute care.

"The study suggests there are a large number of Canadian stroke patients who are not getting the help they need at hospital discharge to get back to an active life," says Dr. Michael Hill, director of the stroke unit at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary and one of the study authors.

"We found that access to and the use of inpatient rehabilitation after stroke is highly variable, so variable that it likely depends upon practice patterns and resources, rather than patient disability and needs."

"Stroke patients are falling through the cracks," says Dr. Mark Bayley, co-chair of the Canadian Stroke Congress and a physiatrist (rehabilitation specialist). "This has huge implications for their future quality of life and use of healthcare and social service resources."

He adds that the study highlights the need for more formal assessment and triage processes to better match patients and their needs to finite rehabilitation services.

The study examined the database of hospital discharge information maintained by the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), focusing on the nearly 60,000 stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA or mini stroke) patients discharged from Canadian hospitals over a two-year period ending in March 2013.

The hospital discharge data are important, says Dr. Hill, because it is crucial for stroke patients to get rehabilitation promptly after their stroke. "There is a window when rehabilitation after stroke is maximally effective," he says. "We need to pay attention to getting people help within this window - before the opportunity for improvement has decreased - if we want to get people back to being as fully functioning as possible in their daily activities and jobs."

He adds that people with moderate and moderately severe disability are the ones that can benefit most from timely access to the right level of rehabilitation services.

Hot Topic in Stroke: Access to Stroke Rehabilitation