ESOC 2025 | Findings from the HOME Rehab trial investigating pre-discharge home visits in stroke patients

The HOME REHAB trial was comparing two interventions, an in-hospital consultation where we prepared patients for discharge and then in addition to that the experimental group received a pre-discharge home visit as well as a post-discharge package. The HOME REHAB trial is a Phase III multi-center pragmatic trial in that we were interested in what the added benefit of pre-discharge home visits was to patients who are already receiving occupational therapy in their hospital before discharge from rehab. So what we found was that both groups actually improved in their activity participation at four weeks post-discharge, but not statistically nor clinically differently from one another. So by that, what I mean is that our control group also improved in activity participation. We prepared patients for discharge in the hospital environment equally as well as what we would have if we’d taken them home. So there wasn’t a difference between the groups. Obviously, because it’s a pragmatic trial, we didn’t find any evidence to support the use of pre-discharge home visits if you’re already preparing patients for discharge from rehab using a good, high-quality occupational therapy. And so our findings now lead us to start thinking a little bit more about scaling up the control intervention in Australia.

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