Rehabilitation

Following discharge from an acute hospitalization, patients that require continued therapy services are discharged to any number of post-acute rehabilitation settings. Regardless of setting, the assessment and treatment of frailty is critical to prevent further functional decline and to improve patient outcomes. The challenge for rehabilitation clinicians is that the presentation of frailty may be difficult to evaluate as it may be masked by the clinical presentation of the underlying cause for rehabilitation. Furthermore, the priority for rehabilitation of the primary diagnosis may unfortunately minimize the focus on frailty. Thus, this chapter emphasizes the need for frailty assessment and treatment in rehabilitation and presents tools and strategies for rehabilitation clinicians to optimize the health of their patients. This chapter concludes with research priorities to create health systems and clinics that promote frailty identification and treatment as priorities in the rehabilitation setting.