Evaluation of a multidisciplinary care program for stroke patients in a day care center

With funds received by the Rehabilitation Center at Martin Place Hospital East from the Michigan Association of Regional Medical Programs, a Rehabilitation Day Care Center was established. Initially it was called the Stroke Day Care Center (SDCC). Its purpose was to provide comprehensive care to patients with disabilities due to stroke and related diseases according to the "day at the hospital, night at home" concept. A complex of medical and allied services was furnished, based upon the patient's attendance at the SDCC from one to five days a week. The goal was to promote for the patient an earlier return of functional vocational, social and home activities by effectively providing him and his family with multidisciplinary care. In this SDCC program the main emphasis was on testing the feasibility of lowering the cost of stroke-patient care by: a) shortening the hospital stay; b) reducing the need for in-patient care in facilities for non-acute illness; c) shortening the stay in extended care facilities; d) returning younger stroke victims earlier to the labor force; e) identifying the number of stroke patients who could live at home if provided with a modified day care program; and f) assessing the need for purely recreational and social activities in future programs. The evaluation was based on a comprehensive study of 108 patients during the period February 1972 to June 1973. This project is offered as a model for the development and expansion of rehabilitation-recreation day care centers for the handicapped of all ages.