Burn Rehabilitation Outcomes

As survival rates have improved there is a growing population of survivors with large and complicated burn injuries, who need rehabilitation services. Although burn rehabilitation is a growing field of inquiry, little research has examined the burn inpatient rehabilitation experience. The primary goal of inpatient rehabilitation is to increase the functional independence of persons with acute disabilities. The Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation (UDSMR®) maintains the largest inpatient rehabilitation database in the world, which includes information on approximately 80% of all inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) nationally. There are more than 7500 burn survivors in the database from 2002 to 2011. The FIM® instrument (“FIM”), developed by UDSMR to assess disability severity and outcomes of medical rehabilitation, is the primary functional metric used in the database. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services require FIM documentation for IRF reimbursement. Researchers have used the UDSMR® database to study other IRF populations such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury.1 In a series of articles, we have examined this data set to develop a better understanding of burn rehabilitation outcomes.