AROC Intensity of Therapy Project

Invitation to participate

AROC is inviting all member facilities to participate in a study to look at the impact of the intensity of therapy on rehabilitation outcomes for inpatients in sub‐acute care in Australia.

Anecdotally we know that there is a lot of interest in this area, but there is little evidence available specifically for the Australian rehabilitation setting. A review of the international literature supports the view that increased intensity of therapy may confer a range of benefits such as earlier functional gains and reduced length of hospital stay, depending on a range of factors such as the person’s impairment.

The AROC study will examine a range of factors including whether there is variation in the amount of therapy which inpatients in the sub‐acute rehabilitation setting in Australia receive and if so, whether there is a correlation between therapy intensity and patient outcomes, such as length of stay and changes in function.

In addition to the usual AROC data collection, members choosing to participate will be asked to collect and submit details about the rehabilitation therapy provided to individual patients, such as the therapy discipline providing treatment, whether the therapy was provided in an individual or group setting and the duration of the therapy provided at each session. There will be a range of options for data collection and submission, including:

•  Services already collecting the required information in a database may choose to submit that data electronically, rather than using the AROC supplied tools

•  Secure web based data entry system

•  Paper based data collection form.

Data is to be collected for 12 continuous weeks. Participating services may choose a convenient start date between now and 1 May 2012 and then collect data for all new admissions over the following 12 weeks. Data will then be linked to the existing AROC inpatient data collection.

Ethics approval for this study has been gained from the University of Wollongong / Illawarra Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee.

If you are interested in participating or would like further information please contact Jacquelin Capell at jcapell@uow.edu.au or by telephone on (02) 4221 4687.

ENTER INTENSITY OF THERAPY DATA