How Consistent Is Patient-Reported Pre-admission Health Status When Collected During and After Hospital Stay?

Efforts to establish the effectiveness of medical care or to assess the quality of care rely increasingly on patients' reports of change in their health status. Such efforts typically require measurement of health status before an intervention takes place (i.e., a baseline assessment) and again at a later, clinically meaningful time. The assessment of baseline health status is not always possible before an intervention, and patients often are asked to recall their baseline