Abstract
Rehabilitation medicine (hereinafter, rehabilitation) is a multidisciplinary practice involving attending and rehabilitation physicians, therapists and nurses. Rehabilitation must be performed in accordance with Rehabilitation Protocols (hereinafter, the protocols). However, it is unclear whether our hospital protocols are appropriate. We carried out an evaluation to clarify the status and to promote improvement of our hospital protocols. This study included 424 inpatients (excluding reconsultation and dysphagia evaluation) who consulted with the Rehabilitation Department between November 2007 and May 2008. In an in-house communication meeting held in December 2007, we requested that protocols be prepared, and based on this intervention, patients were divided into pre-intervention and post-intervention groups. Furthermore, to assess the short- and long-term effects of the intervention, the patients were divided into a pre-intervention group (155 requests for protocols), an early post-intervention group (121), and a late post-intervention group (148). Assessments were made regarding breakdown of wards among the three groups, number of protocols prepared and number of names signed by the patients in attendance. No significant differences were observed among the three groups. Significantly more protocols were prepared in the early post-intervention group (93/121 patients, 76.9%) than in the pre-intervention group (92/155 patients, 59.4%) (p = 0.002). The number of names signed by attendees was greater, although not significantly, in the early post-intervention group (51/93 patients, 54.8%) than that in the pre-intervention group (40/92 patients, 43.5%). Only a few protocols were prepared in our hospital and the attendees did not fully understand the importance of the protocols. Intervention promoted protocol preparation in the short but not long term suggesting that the awareness of the attendees regarding rehabilitation is poor. We need to develop usage of protocols suited to various situations in our hospital and to promote attendee understanding of rehabilitation.
