Rehabilitation is the work of getting function back after a stroke, a fracture, surgery or a long hospital stay. It is delivered in three settings — inpatient, outpatient, and at home — and the setting is often decided by discharge timing rather than by what the person needs.
As soon as the person is medically stable, which in practice is usually within days and before discharge. Waiting until after discharge to arrange it is the most common avoidable delay, because the first weeks are when the most function is recovered.
For many goals it can be, provided the dose is comparable and the therapist has the equipment. The trade-off is that a home programme has fewer machines and more improvisation. What reliably fails is a clinic programme the person cannot get to.
The weekly therapy dose, the disciplines involved, the expected length of stay, the discharge criteria, and what the plan is for the week after discharge. A stay with no stated discharge criteria tends to extend until a bed is needed.
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