Outcomes ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE The Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation Report of Patients with Debility Discharged from Inpatient Rehabilitation Programs in 2000Y2010 ABSTRACT Galloway RV, Granger CV, Karmarkar AM, Graham JE, Deutsch A, Niewczyk P, DiVita MA, Ottenbacher KJ: The Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation: Report of patients with debility discharged from inpatient rehabilitation programs in 2000Y2010. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2013;92:14Y27. Objective: Benchmark data are provided for a national sample of patients who received inpatient rehabilitation for debility. Design: Patients with debility from 830 inpatient rehabilitation facilities in the United States contributing to the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation from 2000 to 2010 were examined. Demographic information (age, marital status, sex, race/ethnicity, prehospital living setting, and discharge setting), hospital infor- mation (length of stay, program interruptions, payer, and codes for admitting diag- nosis), and functional status (Functional Independence Measure [FIM] instrument ratings at admission and discharge, FIM change, and FIM efficiency) were analyzed. Results: Data from 2000 to 2010 (N = 260,373) revealed a decrease in mean (SD) FIM total admission ratings from 73.9 (16.2) to 62.5 (15.8). The FIM total discharge ratings decreased from 95.0 (19.7) to 88.2 (19.8). Mean (SD) length of stay decreased from 14.3 (9.1) to 12.1 (6.2) days. The FIM efficiency (change/day) increased from 1.9 (1.7) to 2.4 (1.9). Discharge to community de- creased from 80% to 75%. Acute care discharges accounted for 12% of the cases. Policy changes affecting classification, reimbursement, and/or documenta- tion processes may have influenced the results. Conclusions: National data indicate that the number of debility cases is in- creasing with diverse composition of etiologic diagnoses. A high proportion of these patients is discharged to acute care compared with other impairment groups. Key Words: Rehabilitation Outcome, Activities of Daily Living, Benchmarking, Muscle Weakness Authors: Rebecca V. Galloway, PT, MPT Carl V. Granger, MD Amol M. Karmarkar, PhD, OTR James E. Graham, PhD, DC Anne Deutsch, RN, PhD, CRRN Paulette Niewczyk, PhD, MPH Margaret A. DiVita, MS Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, PhD, OTR Affiliations: From the Department of Physical Therapy (RVG) and the Division of Rehabilitation Sciences (AMK, JEG, KJO), University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston; the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation, UB Foundation Activities, Inc, Buffalo, New York (CVG, PN, MAD); and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine and Institute for Healthcare Studies, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois (AD). Correspondence: All correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to: Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, PhD, OTR, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd, Galveston, TX 77555-1137. Disclosures: Supported, in part, by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R24 HD065702) and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (H133G080163). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. The agencies did not influence the design, analysis, or interpretation of the study results. The FIM instrument is a registered trademark of the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation, a division of UB Foundation Activities, Inc. Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article. 0894-9115/13/9201-0014/0 American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Copyright * 2012 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins DOI: 10.1097/PHM.0b013e31827441bc 14 Am. J. Phys. Med. Rehabil. & Vol. 92, No. 1, January 2013 Copyright © 2012 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.