RESUMO
Currently, there are more than 53,000 beds in kaifukuki rehabilitation wards throughout Japan. The development of kaifukuki rehabilitation wards is proceeding smoothly in terms of quantity. It is suggested that, with this development, the activities of daily living of patients will significantly improve, leading to an increase in the likelihood of patients returning home when a large unit of daily rehabilitation training is provided via one of these kaifukuki rehabilitation wards. The tasks remaining to be completed for the optimal realization of the kaifukuki rehabilitation wards are to reduce the disparity in the number of beds among prefectures, to realize a mature team approach to the rehabilitation program, to encourage full-time ward physicians of the rehabilitation department to exercise leadership, to enhance subacute medical services, to enhance human resources such as nurses and rehabilitation specialists and to improve the education and training system for the staff. Other major tasks remaining are to strengthen the cooperation between kaifukuki rehabilitation wards and acute hospitals, by which such rehabilitation wards will become capable of actively accepting patients from an early stage, and to establish cooperation between kaifukuki rehabilitation wards and the home care system.