The interRAI Post Acute Care (interRAI PAC) is a comprehensive, standardized instrument for evaluating the needs, strengths, and preferences of individuals receiving post acute care.

interRAI

Selected facilities in Australia, Iceland, Italy and Israel.

Post acute patients in rehabilitation or sub-acute settings.

The interRAI PAC Assessment is designed for use by professionals in post acute care (e.g., physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, social workers, case managers, psychiatrists, psychologists, family physicians, recreational therapists).

Rehabilitation units, rehabilitation hospitals, subacute settings.

The PAC is designed to capture a patient's performance and important clinical characteristics over a three day period during the person's stay. The PAC can be used in rehabilitation hospitals or units as well as sub acute units in nursing facilities. It articulates with the other interRAI tools. The Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS), and several Activities of Daily Living measures can be derived from a completed MDS-PAC assessment. A Functional Independence measure score can be obtained from a completed MDS-PAC. The MDS-PAC can be used as part of a prospective payment system. A RUGS type system as well as a FIM-FRG (Functional Independence Measures Function-Related Groups) has been developed.

interRAI PAC has been tested for reliability in multiple settings and multiple countries. The kappa values are predominantly above 0.6 and key functional areas are above 0.8.

Multiple domains including premorbid status, physical function,cognitive, communication, incontinence, health conditions, skin condition, pain, nutrition, treatments, medications.

The assessment will require direct questioning of the person and the primary support individual (if available), observation of the person, communication with other members of the clinical team, and review of medical records and available documents. Where possible, the individual is the primary source of information.

As with other instruments, CAPS may be triggered for service planning and subscales can be calculated for prediction and outcome measurement.

Is the instrument being used outside the original target population?

Are there different versions of the tool? Sometimes the different versions have different # of questions.

Instruments are copyright to interRAI but are freely made available to clinicians and researchers but for quality purposes licensing agreements are required for software and manuals.

Morris JN, Berg K, Belleville-Taylor P, Murphy K, Nonemaker S, Björkgren M, Frijters D, Fries BE, Gray L, Gilgen R, Hawes C, Henrard JC, Hirdes JP, Ljunggren G, Phillips CD, Steel K, Zimmerman D. interRAI Post Acute Care (PAC): User’s Guide to the interRAI PAC Assessment Form©, Washington DC: interRAI, 2006.

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