Cost-efficiency of specialist inpatient rehabilitation for working-aged adults with complex neurological disabilities: a multicentre cohort analysis of a national clinical data set

Objectives: To evaluate functional outcomes, care needs and cost-efficiency of specialist rehabilitation for a multicentre cohort of inpatients with complex neurological disability, comparing different diagnostic groups across 3 levels of dependency. Design: A multicentre cohort analysis of prospectively collected clinical data from the UK Rehabilitation Outcomes Collaborative (UKROC) national clinical database, 2010-2015. Setting: All 62 specialist (levels 1 and 2) rehabilitation services in England. Participants: Working-aged adults (16-65 years) with complex neurological disability. Inclusion criteria: all episodes with length of stay (LOS) 8-400 days and complete outcome measures recorded on admission and discharge. Total N= 5739: acquired brain injury n= 4182 (73%); spinal cord injury n= 506 (9%); peripheral neurological conditions n= 282 (5%); progressive conditions n= 769 (13%). Intervention: Specialist inpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation. Outcome measures: Dependency and care costs: Northwick Park Dependency Scale/ Care Needs Assessment (NPDS/ NPCNA). Functional independence: UK Functional Assessment Measure (UK Functional Independence Measure (FIM)+ FAM). Cost-efficiency: (1) time taken to offset rehabilitation costs by savings in NPCNA-estimated costs of ongoing care, (2) FIM efficiency (FIM gain/ LOS days), (3) FIM+ FAM efficiency (FIM+ FAM gain/ LOS days). Patients were analysed in 3 groups of dependency. Results: Mean LOS 90.1 (SD 66) days. All groups showed significant reduction in dependency between admission and discharge on all measures (paired t tests: p< 0.001). Mean reduction in `weekly care costs' was greatest in the high-dependency group at xi 760/ week (95% CI 726 to 794)), compared with the medium-dependency (xi 408/ week (95% CI 370 to 445)), and low-dependency ( 130/ week (95% CI 82 to 178)), groups. Despite longer LOS, time taken to offset the cost of rehabilitation was 14.2 (95% CI 9.9 to 18.8) months in the high-dependency group, compared with 22.3 (95% CI 16.9 to 29.2) months (medium dependency), and 27.7 (95% CI 15.9 to 39.7) months (low dependency). FIM efficiency appeared greatest in medium-dependency patients (0.54), compared with the low-dependency (0.37) and high-dependency (0.38) groups. Broadly similar patterns were seen across all 4 diagnostic groups. Conclusions: Specialist rehabilitation can be highly cost-efficient for all neurological conditions, producing substantial savings in ongoing care costs, especially in high-dependency patients.