INTERMED--a clinical instrument for biopsychosocial assessment.

Using the INTERMED, a system for classifying case complexity, the authors evaluated patients admitted to a general internal medicine ward on length of stay (LOS), number of medicines prescribed during the hospital stay, and whether they had received specialist medical consults. Using the patients' INTERMED scores, the authors divided the patients into three clusters of patients: standard (n=41), chronic (n=26), and complex (n=18). A comparison of the three clusters indicated that patients who had scored within the complex cluster were at risk of requiring complex care and an increased LOS. The findings suggest that the INTERMED detects complex patients at admission and may, therefore, be used for early integral case management.