[Neurological and neurosurgical early rehabilitation in Lower Saxony and Bremen]

We analyzed the delivery of healthcare services among patients in neurological and neurosurgical early rehabilitation programmes in the German states of Lower Saxony and Bremen.

Patients´applications and admissions for neurological and neurosurgical early rehabilitation in Lower Saxony and Bremen were recorded during a period of two weeks both in November 2015 as well as 2016. The proportion of patients admitted to early rehabilitation within a six-week-period after disease onset was calculated. In addition, factors influencing the probability of admission were investigated.

Only 45 % of all patients transferred from a primary neurological / neurosurgical unit to an early rehabilitation facility in Lower Saxony / Bremen were successfully admitted. The probability of admission fell when patients were colonized with multi-drug resistant bacteria (21 % in comparison), in particular Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with an admission rate of only 13 %. Deleterious effects were also observed in patients dependent on hemodialysis (20 %), or those with a primary diagnosis of polyneuropathy / Guillain-Barré-Syndrome (33 %) or hypoxic brain damage (37 %), as well as patients on mechanical ventilation (37 %). Patients had a higher probability of being admitted with the primary diagnoses of subarachnoid hemorrhage (52 %) or stroke (51 %). Age, Early Rehabilitation Index (ERI), monitoring, presence of tracheostomy, dysphagia, orientation or behavioral disturbances had no influence on the probability of admission, as well as other primary diagnoses or the number of admissions in one or more rehabilitation centers.

Over one-half of the patients applying for admission to neurological / neurosurgical early rehabilitation facilities in Lower Saxony and Bremen were not admitted. Apparently, the capacity of early rehabilitation treatment in these two German states is not optimal.