Occupational therapy's role in preventing acute readmissions.

Marla R. Robinson, MSc, OTR/L, BCPR, is Assistant Director, Inpatient Therapy Services, University of ChicagoMedicine, Chicago. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA; Pub. L. No. 111–148) is designed to change the way health care services are delivered and reimbursed in the United States. Health care reform efforts stemming from the ACA will result in critical changes for providers and consumers of care. The ACA provides opportunities to examine and act on critical points of weakness in the health care system. One of those points of weakness is the high rate of readmissions to acute care. In this article we discuss the issues around this problem and suggest ways occupational therapy could serve the systemic goal of preventing these occurrences.