Improvement Scaling (Rehabilitation Version)

OBJECTIVES: Accurate measurement of clinically relevant change in individual patients undergoing rehabilitation has been an elusive goal. Simple, clinically meaningful, patient-centered measures of individual patient change are urgently needed. The purpose of this research was the development and testing of Improvement Scaling (Rehabilitation Version)(IMS), a new approach to measuring the progress that rehabilitation patients make during treatment. METHODS: Research and clinical staff developed the 65 IMS scales and applied them to all admissions to an an inpatient rehabilitation unit. Date were collected on 292 consecutively admitted rehabilitation patients who were aged 50 or older. An Improvement Score indicates the degree to which each patient achieves the expected level of outcome on his or her unique set of IMS goals. Improvement scores were compared to Goal Attainment Scores and to scores from more traditional measures. Interrater reliability was assessed. RESULTS: IMS scores correlated r = .78 with comparable Goal Attainment Scores. IMS and Goal Attainment Scores had the same pattern of correlations with other measures. Interrater reliability of IMS scores was r = .91. CONCLUSIONS: IMS appears to be a practical, reliable, valid, and clinically useful technique for measuring individual patient change. What is needed now is replication and more information on factors which may influence IMS scores. Versions of IMS are being developed for home health care and mental health. Applications of IMS for quality assurance, quality improvement, and documentation of patient change for third parties is discussed.