P67 | The clinical frailty scale and the Barthel index: can they be used to predict the workload of healthcare professions in an Internal Medicine department?

Premises and Aims of the study: The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and the Barthel Index (BI) are two indicators of frailty and functionality routinely collected in inpatient wards. Currently, there is a hypothesis about the potential use of these indicators to assess the workload of healthcare professionals. The aim of the study is to assess whether CFS and BI scores, collected upon the patient’s arrival in an Internal Medicine ward, can predict the objective nursing workload.Methods: This prospective monocentric study included patients admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine at Altovicentino Civil Hospital (Italy) between September and December 2022. Healthcare professionals’ activities were objectively recorded in the first three days after admission and standardized to the daily average as services/five minutes/patient/day. Linear regression was employed to investigate the correlation between nursing demand, the CFS, and the BI.Results: The study involved 333 patients, with an average BI of 61.9 (37.1) and an average CFS of 4.1 (2.2). In the multivariate analysis, neither of the two indicators showed statistical significance in relation to the workload of healthcare professionals. Assessing the demand for excessive nursing workload, CFS and BI exhibited a non-significant AUROC, resulting in 0.442 (95% CI 0.354 - 0.529) and 0.607 (95% CI: 0.529 - 0.686), respectively.Conclusions: Neither the CFS nor the BI showed a correlation with the workload of healthcare professionals and, therefore, cannot be used to estimate or reorganize an acute care department.