Predictors of inpatient rehabilitation after total knee replacement: an analysis of private hospital claims data

To the Editor: Schilling and colleagues1 state that the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) — the national rehabilitation clinical quality registry for Australia and New Zealand — does not routinely collect data on post‐surgery outcomes for private total knee replacement (TKR) recipients. This statement is factually incorrect. All private inpatient rehabilitation services in Australia are members of AROC and routinely submit data (including functional outcomes as assessed by a functional independence measure) describing all episodes of rehabilitation they provide. More specifically, over the period described by Schilling and colleagues,1 AROC received data on outcomes for 93 278 TKRs receiving private rehabilitation. If we restrict the AROC data to match the study data (patients aged 40–89, single TKR, first admission), AROC received data describing 76 847 privately rehabilitated TKRs.