Health care costs are escalating worldwide and there is a growing need
to provide health care in the most efficient manner possible without
compromising outcomes. SCI rehabilitation in particular is expensive
and resource intensive. Although LOS has been decreasing in many
settings,12,13 there is still considerable variability globally.7,12–15
Despite the importance of this issue, there has been little published
regarding approaches to improving the efficiency of inpatient
rehabilitation for SCI.
One approach to improving outcomes is to introduce more
efficacious therapeutic interventions; the typical emphasis of clinicians.
Alternatively patient outcomes and system efficiency can be
improved through the evaluation and improvement of the processes
involved in care delivery. This is true of any complex organization and