Development of an Acute Care Index of Functional status for patients with neurologic impairment.

The Acute Care Index of Function (ACIF) was developed to standardize the functional status assessment of patients with acute neurologic impairment. The ACIF was used to collect patient data for a six-month period. A scoring system was then developed for the ACIF using data from 75 randomly selected patients in three discharge categories: 1) home (n = 25), 2) nursing home (n = 25), and 3) rehabilitation center (n = 25). After a scoring system was established, the ACIF was examined to determine whether it met the design criteria. The average amount of time required to administer the ACIF was 12 minutes, demonstrating feasibility for use in acute care. Data from 28 patients with a cerebrovascular accident from the discharge categories of nursing home and rehabilitation center demonstrated that the ACIF was precise enough to detect functional status changes in patients with an acute neurologic impairment. Data from the original 75 patients were examined to determine the ability of the ACIF to separate patients by score into groups consistent with their discharge placement. A 1 x 3 analysis of variance and a Scheffé post hoc analysis demonstrated that the mean ACIF scores of patients in the three discharge categories were significantly different.