Beyond the tip of the iceberg: quantifying the odds of multidrug-resistance carriers for receiving post-acute follow-up rehabilitation after hospital stay - a real-world study using German data

Introduction

Health equity means equal opportunities for all patients. While follow-up rehabilitation (German: Anschlussheilbehandlung (AHB)) improves patient-outcomes and reduces societal burdens of disease, patients colonised or infected with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO-carriers) have reportedly been denied admission by post-acute care (PAC) providers in Germany. This might however only be the tip of an 'iceberg', since carriers might drop out during earlier application processes. In this study, we quantify MDRO associated dropouts and model the odds of dropping out during different application stages.