New Tool Boosts Patient Rehab at HMC

Doha, July 16 (QNA) - Rehabilitation of patients at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) received a boost with the hospital being granted a license to use a unique assessment tool that empowers occupational therapists to develop more effective treatment plans. Called the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) instrument, it is highly regarded worldwide as one of the most reliable methods of evaluating the outcomes of patients undergoing medical rehabilitation, HMC said. The FIM scale focuses on identifying care needs by assessing physical and cognitive disability based on the level of help a person needs to complete day-to-day activities such as eating, dressing or using the bathroom. The FIM tool was developed by the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation (UDSMR), a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. The USDMR maintains the world s largest database for medical rehabilitation outcomes. Healthcare and rehabilitation facilities worldwide use the system to assess and measure patient activity and progress objectively while in medical rehabilitation. Commenting on the hospital's new initiative, HMC's Occupational Therapy Department Chief Sultan Salem Hammam Al Abdullah said, "HMC has successfully completed the requirements of the UDSMR Mastery Examination and is licensed to use the FIM tool until 2014. I am pleased to say that 35 staff underwent the licensing examination with an average pass rate of 94.52%, and seven therapists got 100% in the examination." The FIM instrument will enable HMC to generate important data for the accreditation process of the Joint Commission Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and other regulatory agencies. Speaking on the role of the FIM in future practice, Al Abdullah said, "The FIM has been used extensively in research all over the world but so far it has rarely been used as outcome measure in research in Qatar. We now intend to use this tool for research purposes to compare rehabilitation outcomes such as length of stay and quality of life." (QNA)