Despite the benefits of prehabilitation before surgery, many patients do not participate in these programs. Research has shown that prehab reduces the duration of hospital stays, thus the cost of hospitalization, and improves the recovery process from surgery. This paper aims to determine why prehab is not as common as rehab by evaluating its accessibility issues related to the amount of information accessible to patients, and the cost and insurance policies related to prehab. Telemedicine is also presented as a possible solution to the accessibility issues, and viewed as an alternative that can increase the number of prehab participants. Literature review and analysis of clinic websites indicates that information availability and cost presents accessibility issues to prehab. Although cost and information availability of prehab presents an accessibility problem, and telemedicine has the potential to increase the number of participants in prehab, it is found that many people still might not consider prehab as an option.
Studying prehab is interesting and it presents a unique case study of the benefits of preventative medicine. Preventative medicine is often not promoted because of the difficulty of measuring the benefits. But in the case of prehab, both the physical benefits and cost-savings are easily measurable. This paper presents an interesting and clear case study about the effectiveness of preventative medicine, and contributes important data in favor of shifting greater resources and attention to preventative medicine.