Disclosures: Kevin A. Moylan, DO: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Objective: To determine if outpatient physician appointments scheduled during inpatient rehabilitation can be rescheduled or cancelled.
Design: Retrospective medical record review. Setting : Free standing sixty bed inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) affiliated with an academic institution. Participants : Review of one thousand twenty-four consecutive admissions.
Interventions: Physicians and staff contacted orthopedic and neurosurgery services to determine if follow up appointments for patients participating in inpatient rehabilitation could be rescheduled, cancelled, or care could be accomplished by physicians at the IRF.
Main Outcome Measures: Decrease in outpatient appointments and transportation costs.
Results: Patients participating in inpatient rehabilitation from January 2019 through March 2019 attended 152 outpatient physician appointments. Orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery were identified as the services accounting for the majority of those visits: 79 of the 152. Approximately 2/3 of IRF patients are transported to outpatient visits in wheelchairs, while 1/3 are transported on stretchers. The average round trip transportation costs are $90 and $370, respectively. In April 2019, resident physicians and designated staff began contacting orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery services to determine if the outpatient appointments for newly admitted patients could be rescheduled, cancelled or if care could be provided by a physician at the IRF. In the subsequent three quarters, the total number of outpatient physician visits were reduced by 65, 76, and 43, saving approximately $33,800 in transportation costs. Conclusions: Patients admitted to an IRF frequently have multiple outpatient physician appointments scheduled to occur during their stay. By contacting orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery services, outpatient appointments were decreased by 46%. This resulted in measurable savings by reducing transportation costs and decreasing utilization of healthcare resources.
Level of Evidence: Level II
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Moylan KA, McGhee EK, Worsowicz G. The Effects of Reduced Outpatient Physician Visits During Inpatient Rehabilitation [abstract]. PM R. 2020; 12(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-effects-of-reduced-outpatient-physician-visits-during-inpatient-rehabilitation/. Accessed May 25, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2020
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-effects-of-reduced-outpatient-physician-visits-during-inpatient-rehabilitation/