Functional evaluation of rehabilitation outcome - a pilot project on implementation of the Inpatient Functional Assessment (ICF) in selected spas

Background & Study Aim: According to World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, the effectiveness of rehabilitation mea- sures should be evaluated comprehensively. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) allows to make a bio-psycho-social functional assessment. ICF, being part of WHO internation- al classifications, is an international standard for describing and assessing health and disability. This article is a presentation of a pilot application of this classification in the assessment of rehabilitation progress based on the model of information collection designed by the authors. The aim of the study was knowledge about the time-consuming nature of entering the required data related to the assessment of the effectiveness of reha- bilitation intervention. Material & Methods: Patients of two publicly funded inpatient rehabilitation centres participated in the study. On the basis of ICFcompliant criteria for assessing the progress and effectiveness of rehabilitation, the patient's condition was assessed twice: upon his/her admission to hospital and upon his/her discharge after the rehabilitation stay. The rehabilitation stay financed from public funds by the national payer (the National Health Fund - NFZ) lasts 21 days during which each patient undergoes at least 5 physiotherapy procedures specified by a doctor. A total of 174 patients were examined. Results: Assessment of results of rehabilitation progress in individual patients shows that vast majority of respondents (76%) demonstrated health improvement. The average questionnaire entry time was 3 minutes and 51 seconds. Conclusions: Results of the pilot project indicate that the proposed solution would meet assumptions of a universal mea- sure of rehabilitation progress based on the ICF model. The average time required for entering data into the questionnaire is shorter than the usual period of time needed to conduct a physiotherapy interview with a pa- tient. Therefore, we recommend this method and tool as meeting the diagnostic criteria for use not only in re- habilitation, but also in therapy and prevention.