Abstract: Objective To investigate the status of the establishment and service of the rehabilitation departments in comprehensive hospitals in China mainland.Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted in 240 comprehensive hospitals with different grades distributed in the capital city of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipality cities in China mainland in a stratified sampling way. The contents investigated are the settings of rehabilitation departments, the performances of the rehabilitation services, the staffing of the rehabilitation workers and the problems faced in rehabilitation. Then, statistical analysis were done between the developed eastern regions and economically less developed middle-western regions, as well as different grades of comprehensive hospitals. Results In total, 216 valid questionnaires were collected (72 tertiary hospitals, 72 secondary hospitals and 72 primary hospitals), and there are no statistically difference between eastern regions and middle-western regions(P=0.61). About 69% of the hospitals surveyed have built up the rehabilitation departments, and there are no statistically difference between different regions (P=0.30). As far as the performance of the rehabilitation services are concerned, 97.2% of them have carried out rehabilitation service, 60% of them can satisfy the demands of the patients, and there are no difference between the different grades and between the eastern and middle-western regions(P>0.05). In addition, 76.4% of them have rehabilitation doctors, 68.4% have physiotherapists(PT), 52.3% have traditional Chinese medicine doctors, 50.5% have occupational therapists(OT), 36.9% have speech therapists(ST), 17.8% have psychologists, and only 2.3% have social workers. The staff status on PT, OT and ST of the hospitals in eastern regions are significantly better than that in middle-western regions(P<0.01), and the staff status on rehabilitation doctors, PT, OT, ST and psychologists in the tertiary hospitals are significantly better than that in the secondary hospitals and primary hospitals(P<0.01). Finally, the first five problems the rehabilitation department faced are following: short of professional workers(63.9%), lack of training areas(51%), lack of modern rehabilitation service management system (50.5%), out-of-date equipments(49.5%) and low fees of rehabilitation treatment(49.1%). Conclusion Many problems exists in the rehabilitation departments of comprehensive hospitals, such as the development of rehabilitation departments, the professional workers, the quality and width of the service, the efficient use of rehabilitation resources, rehabilitation management and profession permission, the relative policies and regulations, personnel training and so on. Therefore, the government should enhance to put the supported policies into practice, and reinforce investment to the comprehensive hospitals, in particular, enhance the support of the comprehensive hospitals in middle-western regions, as well as the primary hospitals and the secondary hospitals, all of which will play a much more efficient role in rehabilitation for the disabled in the comprehensive hospitals.

Key words: rehabilitation, institution, service, resource, management, strategy