Rehabilitation services in rural communities: delivery by hospital based and local teams.

Since rehabilitation services are generally not available on a local basis to rural communities, a rural service delivery approach, the Coordinated Ambulatory Rehabilitation Evaluation Services (CARES) Project, was established. The program demonstrated a local rural rehabilitation capability based on primary care physicians, a local hospital, and nonphysician rehabilitation providers working cooperatively with a rehabilitation specialty hospital 640km away. Service delivery profiles of the hospital and local teams were compared for pediatric and adult clinics. The project was successfully implemented with 281 patients seen in their local areas.