A Comparison of Client Outcomes from Two Acute Care Neurological Services Using Self-Care Data from the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy (AusTOMs - OT)

Abstract

The 12 scales in the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy (AusTOMs-OT) have been previously reported as offering therapists a simple and quick outcome measure for use in all practice areas. This short report describes and compares outcomes for a sample of 82 clients with neurological problems from two acute care hospitals who were rated on the AusTOMs-OT Self-care scale. It was found that client outcomes were comparable at the two facilities, although one site had a higher number of occupational therapy contacts and a greater number of clients showed a reduction in their level of impairment. The findings of this study suggest that AusTOMs-OT can be used by services to compare client outcomes. Ultimately, AusTOMs-OT could be used to establish clinical benchmarks against which services could make comparisons.