[Current developments in ambulatory rehabilitation]

Up to now, the majority of rehabilitative measures in Germany has been performed in inpatient programmes. In the past 10 years discussions have increased about extending a flexible scheme involving outpatient, inpatient and partially inpatient rehabilitation benefits. Some concepts in outpatient rehabilitation were already developed as well by the Federal Rehabilitation Council as by various rehabilitation providers. Concept requirements include the principles of holism, interdisciplinarity, goal-oriented rehabilitation and team-work of rehabilitation staff. The arguments in favour of extended outpatient rehabilitation are being faced with many questions and uncertainty about future needs, differential indication criteria and effectiveness. In order to answer these questions pilot projects accompanied by scientists are being conducted for different indication fields. Preliminary findings of the scientific studies indicate that the inpatient rehabilitation model gains more acceptance than the partially inpatient type. The studies on the whole show that partially inpatient populations differ from inpatient ones on various variables. Considering these limitations in comparability, there is a tendency for partially inpatient rehabilitation to yield similar results as inpatient measures. Additionally, it is important to accurately identify the indication.