[Early rehabilitation in the hospital--time for structural changes]

Although it has long been undisputed that successful rehabilitation outcomes require early-onset, comprehensive rehabilitative intervention, research findings show that major shortcomings exist concerning the provision of rehabilitative care in hospitals. Contrary to the statutory premises at hand, a majority of hospitals continue to consider rehabilitation a treatment phase scheduled to set in only after completion of acute care. "Rehabilitation of the first day", a long-standing demand among the professional community, is hardly taking place at all. The rank of hospital-integrated early rehabilitation has now been confirmed in the framework of a model facility supported by the Federal ministry of labour and social order, with the recently completed scientific follow-along of the Ingolstadt Klinikum department for transdisciplinary early rehabilitation having made available research evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of early-onset, comprehensive rehabilitation interventions in the hospital, and presented in this article for the first time.