A scoping review protocol of Complexity in Rehabilitation - An international evidence review and practice implications.

Rehabilitation services globally are facing increasing pressure due to demographic change and the growing prevalence of complex care needs. Many patients now present with intertwined medical, psychological, and social challenges that require coordinated, multidisciplinary, and resource-intensive responses. As rehabilitation aims to optimise functioning across the continuum of care, rising complexity demands stronger integration across disciplines, organisations, and sectors. Ensuring effective coordination within and across acute, post-acute, community, and social care systems is therefore an urgent and ongoing challenge. Understanding and operationalising complexity is essential for aligning rehabilitation within broader integrated care reforms. However, inconsistent terminology and a lack of conceptual clarity mean that the current evidence base is fragmented and not clearly mapped. This review aims to scope international understandings of complexity in rehabilitation. The primary aim of this scoping review is to examine how complexity is conceptualised, defined, and operationalised in the international rehabilitation literature at the level of the person, the service, and the health and social care system.