Measuring Rehabilitation Outcomes to Inform Care

Host Institution: Baycrest Health Sciences

The Activity Measure-Post Acute Care (AM-PAC™) tool is a short paper questionnaire that measures basic mobility, daily activities and applied cognitive ability. It has been validated in multiple clinical settings, including acute care. This project is evaluating its use among frail elderly adults in high and low-intensity rehabilitation programs at Baycrest.

Preliminary results from our pilot test showed that most participants in the high tolerance, short duration rehabilitation unit had improved function on discharge compared to admission. They also showed improved and sustained functional abilities one-month post-discharge.

To date, the tool is performing well overall. We will complete final analyses in the summer of 2017. In the future, we anticipate applying the tool to other rehabilitation settings and contexts, for example: triaging patients to the most appropriate rehabilitation units on admission; tailoring patients’ needs to goals; predicting outcomes for discharge planning; helping to maximize patient potential while making efficient use of healthcare resources; and providing outcome information post-discharge. Future studies may also investigate a digital version.