Overlaps and accumulation in the use of rehabilitation services

The Finnish rehabilitation system is considered fragmented and multisectoral, and thus it may produce 'multiclients' receiving inefficient and overlapping services. This paper addresses the overlaps and accumulation in the delivery of rehabilitation services in Finnish rehabilitation subsystems. Data were drawn from several administrative registers on the use of rehabilitation services during the years 2004 and 2005 in one hospital district area in Midwest Finland. To analyze the differences in use of rehabilitation services between the patient groups, cross-tabulations, logistic and linear regressions were used. Altogether 15 189 persons in the study area used rehabilitation services during 2004 and 2005; 9% of rehabilitees used services provided by two or more subsystems. These multiclients used 25% of all rehabilitation services. Men of working ages and living in larger municipalities were more likely to be multiclients. The proportion of multiclients among all rehabilitees was smaller than expected. However, these multiclients used a larger proportion of rehabilitation services. In the case of multiclients, the problems most likely occur in the rehabilitation process, as the services provided by different subsystems most probably are not linked together. To improve the performance of the rehabilitation system, more attention should be paid to integrating the subsystems.