The number of elderly people is increasing and healthcare is becoming increasingly expensive. Clinicians also notice this in geriatric rehabilitation care (GR). Clients’ wishes are also changing: they increasingly value rehabilitation close to home. We therefore have to design the GR differently: more outpatient (from home) and less in the nursing home or rehabilitation clinic.

On the 1^st of June, 2023, various Dutch researchers started a new research project: ‘Thuis als het kan’ (At home if possible), sponsored by ZonMw. They are developing outpatient GR in three regions, based on existing examples that show promising results. There, clinicians monitor how clients, relatives and care providers experience the outpatient GR process and what effects this treatment has, for example on the quality of life or the use of care by clients.

The three participating regions work together in a Learning Network. Their results should help all national regions to also be able to introduce appropriate outpatient GR.