Setting Standards for Home Assessment Visiting

Abstract

Occupational therapists working in care of the elderly assessment units and geriatric orthopaedic rehabilitation units throughout Lothian Health devised an audit project to develop a timescale for organising home assessment visits. The aim was to formulate an achievable and realistic standard which could be adopted for use throughout the area. A steering group organised a 4-week survey of practice to determine how long it takes to organise a home assessment visit. The results showed that 86% of home assessment visits were organised within 5 working days. A standard was subsequently drafted based on these results. A 3-month audit of the standard was then carried out to determine if any exceptions were required.

Following a home assessment visit, a written report is completed and filed in the patient's medical notes. A period of 2 days between the date of the visit and filing the report is the commonly held standard throughout Lothian Health. This standard was examined concurrently with the above. The results showed that 88% of visits were organised within 5 working days and 61% of reports were filed within 2 working days. Both the standards are currently being reaudited but full results are not yet available.