The answer is not very straightforward. According to TIME magazine, there is no standard definition of “rehab,” so there is no standard metric of success for rehabilitation centers. Some facilities simply measure how many of their patients complete their programs; others consider sobriety in the follow-up months and years after “graduation” as the threshold for success.
Rehab Success Rates and Statistics, American Addiction Centers, October 18, 2021
Some facilities, for example, tout success rates in the 90th percentile, but this can be misleading; there are often very flexible criteria for what defines that kind of success. How such facilities deal with the ever-present topic of relapse, and further rounds of treatment, is left unsaid or not comprehensively addressed.
That ambiguity goes a long way, with the Washington Post claiming that despite America’s addiction to rehab, it doesn’t work for many people. Some programs are failing alcoholics, according to the Post, because when the person relapses, the program places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the patient, absolving itself of any culpability or weakness.
Since many treatment centers do not follow up with their patients, the “100 percent” success rate some cite only applies to those who complete the length of their stay. Even those who boast a more modest “30 percent success rate” only draw that figure from the immediate sobriety rates after treatment, not from six months or three years down the road.
"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."