This study is a secondary analysis of a prospective observational cohort of consecutive adult patients accepted for inpatient rehabilitation at two metropolitan tertiary hospitals in Sydney, Australia. Data were collected over a 4-month period. The analysis targeted patients who had been deemed ready for transfer to inpatient rehabilitation, with the aim of quantifying the time spent waiting in acute care prior to transfer.
The principal outcomes reported were the time interval from the point a patient was judged ready for rehabilitation to the actual transfer, and the proportion of acute bed-days occupied by patients while waiting for rehabilitation transfer. Acute length of stay (LOS) for the cohort and total bed-days attributable to waiting were used to calculate the relative contribution of rehabilitation-related delays to overall acute bed occupancy.
Among 373 patients accepted for inpatient rehabilitation, the cohort accrued a total acute LOS of 7,953 days. Of those, 1,499 acute bed-days were spent waiting for transfer to inpatient rehabilitation. This represents 18.8% of all acute bed-days for the cohort being attributed to waiting for rehabilitation transfer. The authors emphasized that delays in transferring patients to rehabilitation contribute substantially to hospital exit-block and acute bed occupancy.
The median waiting time from rehabilitation readiness to transfer was reported as 2 days (interquartile range 1–6 days). Transfer timing details included:
These figures indicate a wide distribution of wait times, with a notable minority experiencing prolonged delays that extend beyond seven days.
The data show that delayed access to inpatient rehabilitation can make a measurable and substantial contribution to acute bed occupancy. In this cohort, nearly one-fifth of acute bed-days were consumed by patients waiting for rehabilitation transfer. From a systems perspective, these delays contribute to exit-block and can impede patient flow, potentially affecting emergency department access, elective surgery scheduling, and overall hospital throughput.
The authors identified several strategies reported in the source to mitigate delays and improve patient flow:
These approaches are presented as potential system-level interventions to reduce the proportion of acute bed-days consumed by rehabilitation waiting time and to improve hospital throughput.
The abstract reports that the analysis was a secondary analysis of a prospective cohort and provides the core quantitative results noted above. Detailed methodological limitations, subgroup analyses, cost implications, patient-level functional outcomes, or longer-term follow-up were not described in the abstract. Where additional specifics (for example, precise selection criteria, reasons for individual delays, or comparative data across sites) are relevant, those details were not reported in the source abstract and would require consultation of the full text for clarification.
Delayed transfer to inpatient rehabilitation represented a substantial and quantifiable contributor to acute bed occupancy in this two-hospital Sydney cohort. With a median wait of 2 days and nearly 19% of acute bed-days used by patients awaiting rehabilitation transfer, the study highlights the potential impact of rehabilitation-related delays on hospital capacity and identifies several system-focused strategies to address the problem.