| Summary: | Increased needs for health and social services, along with limits to financial resources, force public sector managers to optimize the allocation of financial resources. In this perspective, this research project is aimed at developing tools to evaluate rehabilitation programs dealing with physical disabilities. More specifically, the objectives are first, to examine relationships between the progression of a physically disabled person's functional profile and the rehabilitation services received, and second, to develop a tool to measure the efficiency of the rehabilitation programs offered. In accordance with the disability creation process conceptual framework, clinical results have been measured by measuring the progression of rehabilitation and efficiency has been defined as the relationship between clinical results obtained and the resources or means employed. A prospective cohort study was done on a sample of 100 users 65 years of age or older enrolled in the visual impairment program. The results of the study tend to show that the hours of service delivery allocated to a user contribute positively to the progress of his or her overall functional profile. They also show that a user's overall functional profile at intake is very strongly related to the consumption of financial resources. This relationship has allowed us to establish a system of classification of homogenous typical functional groups that makes relatively reliable predictions based on a unique measurement. Finally, the efficiency measurement tool developed represents a major innovation in evaluating the performance of rehabilitation programs in that it constitutes a benchmark toward attaining quality objectives for care and services while respecting financial constraints.
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