What's in a building? : a descriptive survey of adult inpatient rehabilitation facility buildings in Victoria, Australia

Ruby Lipson-Smith, Heidi Zeeman, Julie Bernhardt

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: To identify all the services that offer inpatient rehabilitation in Victoria, Australia, and to describe the buildings in which these services are housed, including their size, age, whether or not they were purpose-built, whether or not they are colocated with a tertiary hospital, the proportion of single-bed rooms, and ward layout. Design: Cross-sectional survey of inpatient rehabilitation buildings. Data were collected via telephone questionnaire and websites. Participants: Sixty-four rehabilitation facilities were identified and all participated in the survey (37 public, 27 private). Results: Results revealed heterogeneity on most variables measured, including size (number of beds ranged from 2-104), age (oldest building built in 1860, and 26% built since 2010), purpose-built status (48% purpose-built), freestanding status (34% freestanding), percentage of single-bed rooms (ranged from 0%-100%), and layout. All facilities had a therapy gym, and most had a communal area (96%). Conclusion: Since 2010, the proportion of buildings being purpose-built and colocated with a tertiary hospital has increased. The proportion of single-bed rooms has also increased and is especially high in privately funded facilities. Results suggest that rehabilitation design is influenced by norms and evidence from acute medical health care despite the purpose of care being different: acute care (short-term, medical illness) and rehabilitation (longer-term, recovery, relearning).
Original languageEnglish
Article number100040
Number of pages9
JournalArchives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation
Volume2
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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