International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access
ISSN: 2329-9096
ISSN: 2329-9096
Luke K Barr*
Background: Medical costs are spiraling out of control in the United States (US), consuming approximately 5 trillion dollars annually. About 30% of this, or 1.5 trillion dollars, is consumed in hospitals. To combat this, there are ongoing efforts to find and implement novel, low-cost, safe solutions to reduce the Hospital Length of Stay (HLOS). On average, a single day of hospitalization in the US costs about $3,000.00. Therefore, even relatively minor reduction in HLOS can generate significant savings if deployed at scale. Most data suggest that the average HLOS for acute ischemic stroke is from 6-11 days, with newer data indicating a HLOS of about 7-9 days overall.
Purpose: To assess whether bimanual neurorehabilitation during acute hospitalization may reduce the length of hospital stay. Study Design: Secondary analysis of a single-center observational cohort study. Methods: Retrospective analysis of hospital length of stay was analyzed and compared against the average length of stay.
Results: Patients who performed bimanual neurorehabilitation with a novel polyform device had an average length of stay of 6 days. This is inflated by a single outlier who had a length of stay of 15 days for non-medical reasons, and excluding this outlier, the average is reduced to 4.5 days.
Conclusion: Incorporating bimanual neurorehabilitation using a polyform device may shorten hospital length of stay by 1-3 days, on average, after acute ischemic stroke. In the United States this can reduce hospital costs by $3,000.00 $9,000.00, per stroke, per day, on average. At approximately 695,000 acute ischemic strokes per year, this can save between 2.1 billion and 6.3 billion dollars yearly. For a large hospital system, this may be several million dollars per year.
Published Date: 2025-12-03; Received Date: 2025-11-04