ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurorehabilitation
This article is part of the Research TopicNew approaches for central nervous system rehabilitation - Volume IIView all 12 articles
Healthcare Utilization for Inpatient Rehabilitation Among People with Traumatic Brain Injury Before the Introduction of the Specialized Rehabilitation Hospital System: A Nationwide Retrospective Cohort Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Health Insurance Research Institute, National Health Insurance Service, Wonju-si, Republic of Korea
- 2Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University, Seodaemun-gu, Republic of Korea
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Introduction: In this study, we aimed to examine the use of inpatient rehabilitation services among individuals who experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 2017, before the establishment of the specialized rehabilitation hospital system. Methods: We analyzed healthcare resource utilization among patients hospitalized with TBI at acute care hospitals in 2017. Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Service-Nationwide Health Insurance Database of South Korea. For patients who received inpatient rehabilitation, the length of stay (LOS) over the 2 years following their initial hospital admission was analyzed. Negative binomial regression was used to identify factors influencing LOS. Results: Patients who received inpatient rehabilitation were hospitalized for a mean of 145.2 days during the follow-up period (median: [Q1–Q3]: 35 [16–141] days). LOS was shorter in tertiary hospitals, general hospitals, primary hospitals, and clinics than in long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) (all p<0.001). After discharge from the initial healthcare institution, the most common first transfer destination was LTCH (27.5 %), followed by general and primary hospitals. For subsequent hospitalizations, approximately half (48.3%) of the patients were admitted to LTCHs. Conclusion: These findings underscore the need to establish a specialized rehabilitation hospital system.
Keywords: Traumatic Brain Injury, inpatient rehabilitation, specialized rehabilitation hospital system, Length of Stay, Healthcare delivery systems
Received: 27 Jul 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bae, Shin, Park and Kim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Wha Me Park, wmpark2045@yuhs.ac
Jeongha Kim, jeongha@nhis.or.kr
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