Timothy Reistetter, PhD, OTR, FAOTA

2019

Dr. Reistetter is Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Health Professions at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio (as of January 2019). He is widely recognized for his leadership in health services research within rehabilitation in general, and in occupational therapy specifically. Through Dr. Reistetter’s K12, K01, and subsequently his currently funded Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality R01, he has brought the discussion of how to measure rehabilitation geographic regions to the forefront. Specifically, he is translating methodology from the hospital-centric research conducted at Dartmouth College and implementing these approaches to a rehabilitation context to define rehabilitation geographic services areas. Prior to Dr. Reistetter’s seminal work, any researchers examining geographic variations in rehabilitation quality of care were limited to the hospital-based regions, called Hospital Service Areas, even if they did not adequately reflect the context and environment in which rehabilitation was provided across the country, as this was the accepted approach. Thus, it has been Tim’s work, which has focused on developing and evaluating Rehabilitation Service Areas that has provided health services researchers with the necessary tools to effectively measure variations in service delivery, access, and quality. 

Selected References

Reistetter, TA, Chang, PJ, & Abreu, BC (2009) Showering habits: Time, steps, and products used after brain injury. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 5, 641-645.

Reistetter, TA, Graham, JE, Deutsch, A, Markello, S, Granger, CV, & Ottenbacher, KJ (2010) Utility of functional status for classifying community versus institutional discharges following inpatient rehabilitation for stroke. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 91, 345-350.

Reistetter, TA, Graham, JE, Deutsch, A, Markello, S, Granger, CV, & Ottenbacher, KJ (2011) Age and diabetes comorbidity tier groups influence length of stay, functional status and discharge setting in persons with hip fracture receiving inpatient medical rehabilitation. Diabetes Care, 34, 137-139. 

Ottenbacher, KJ, Karmarkar, A, Graham, JE, Kuo, YF, Deutsch, A, Reistetter, TA, Al Snih, S, Granger, CV (2014) Thirty-Day hospital readmission following discharge from post-acute inpatient rehabilitation in fee-for-service Medicare patients. JAMA, 31, 6, 604-614. 

Reistetter ,TA, Kuo, YF, Karmarkar, A, Eschbach, K, Srinivas, T, Freeman, J, Ottenbacher, KJ (2015) Geographic and facility variation in inpatient stroke rehabilitation: multilevel analysis of functional status. Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 96, 1248-54.