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• The number of patients who come to the Veterans Administration requiring an indefinite period of hospitalization has been increasing. It has become necessary to concentrate as fully on the treatment of these long-term patients as on the acutely ill. Experience has shown that many patients in the severely disabled, chronically ill, and aging categories, apparently destined to remain in the hospital for the rest of their lives, can be returned to their homes, frequently to partial or full-time employment. The physical medicine and rehabilitation service has a particularly significant part in saving long-term patients from life-long dependence on the hospital; in addition the VA has utilized a program whereby volunteers from the patient's community aid in paving the way for the veteran to arrive home after discharge. For a domiciliary member, the service can provide a preventive type of care to retard physical and mental deterioration and to reduce the likelihood of his being transferred to the hospital for care as a patient.
A. B. C. Knudson (Sat,) studied this question.