To evaluate the effectiveness of community hospital–based postacute care (PAC) for frail older patients and to provide a baseline profile of functional gain during PAC for use in further long-term outcome studies.

Prospective cohort study.

A community hospital in Taiwan.

Elderly patients admitted to a community hospital with acute or postacute conditions.

Barthel Index, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, Mini-Mental State Examination, and Geriatric Depression Scale.

A comprehensive geriatric assessment–based functional re-ablement program.

Data were collected for 251 patients recruited between July 2006 and June 2008 from Taipei Veterans General Hospital and the acute wards of Yuanshan Veterans Hospital. Overall, clinical improvement was significant in various dimensions, including cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination from 11.9 ± 8.1 to 15.1 ± 8.3, P < .001), physical function (Barthel Index from 42.2 ± 34.1 to 64.9 ± 33.7, P < .001; Lawton-Brody Instrumental Activities of Daily Living from 1.8 ± 2.4 to 3.0 ± 2.8, P < .001), depression (Geriatric Depression Scale from 0.9 ± 1.9 to 0.6 ± 1.3, P < .001), ambulation (timed up-and-go test from 16.4 ± 19.6 to 10.1 ± 19.0, P < .001), and nutrition (Mini Nutritional Assessment from 15.0 ± 4.2 to 17.4 ± 3.7, P < .001).

A short-term inpatient physical re-ablement program conducted by an interdisciplinary geriatric team in a community hospital can successfully improve the physical and mental function, mood, ambulation, and nutritional conditions of postacute patients. Further study is needed to evaluate long-term clinical outcomes of patients with different rates of functional recovery during treatment in a PAC unit.