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Frequently asked questions
1. Where can I
get more information about Needs Assessment Forms for Older
People?
2. Where can I buy the forms?
3. When will
the forms be published?
4. How does MDS support SAP?
5. How does
MDS help with assessing for residential and nursing home care?
6. How long
does it really take to do an MDS assessment?
7. How do I know using MDS will give a
better outcome in terms of quality of data?
8. How can I get information about the
software application?
9. Is there a training manual?
10 Are the
forms available electronically?
1. Contact TSO Customer Services team on 0870 342 0123 or contact TSO at: PO Box 29,
Norwich, NR3 1GN
2. There are five easy ways to order Needs Assessment Forms:
- Online: Visit www.tso.co.uk/bookshop
- By telephone: +44 (0)870 243 0123
- By fax: +44 (0)870 243 0129
- By post: TSO, PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN
- TSO Shops: Visit your local TSO
Shop
- Please contact us directly for volume discounts.
3. September 2003
4. The guidelines for the Department of Health (DoH) Single Assessment Process (SAP)
specify four levels of assessment: initial contact assessment, overview assessment,
in-depth (also known as specialist) assessment, and comprehensive assessment. The
MDS-HC has components that map directly to each of these levels of assessment. These
components are linked by logical rules and algorithms underpinned by a research and
practice evidence-base.
Contact, overview and comprehensive assessment tools are available from TSO.
Contact Assessment
The DoH describes the contact assessment as a first contact between an older
person and health and social services, during which basic personal information is
collected, the nature of the presenting problem is established, and the potential
presence of wider health and social care problems is explored.
During a Contact Assessment, the assessor completes basic personal information,
and details about the referral items.
The assessor then completes the seven self-reliance items of the MDS–HC.
If the client is self-reliant, the presenting problem is addressed and no
further assessments are performed. If the client is not self-reliant, the
assessor continues with the Overview Assessment.
The self-reliance algorithm could be completed as a coarse screening assessment
by, for example, a trained receptionist in a GP surgery or by telephone.
Overview Assessment
The DoH expects that professionals carry out an overview assessment if, in their
judgement, the individual's problems are such that a more rounded assessment
should be undertaken. At overview assessment, all or some of the domains of
the single assessment process, such as “personal care and physical well-being”,
“senses”, and “mental health” are explored. The need for an overview assessment
may be immediately apparent, and should be commenced once basic personal
information has been collected. At other times, a contact assessment may have
been carried out. In some situations, an in-depth assessment of a specific
problem may have been undertaken first, with the overview assessment providing
subsequent contextual assessment information.
This is provided for within the Overview Assessment tool. The 68 item MDS-HC
screener covers 18 of the required domains listed in the NSF for Older People.
The 62 item screener supplement contains a further 14 domains, five of which are
preventive health items, three of which are personal safety, and one of which is
accommodation. The remaining items are vision and hearing, dressing, oral care,
and foot care.
Comprehensive Assessment
Finally, DoH requires that comprehensive old age assessments should be completed
for people where the level of support and treatment likely to be offered is
intensive or complex, including permanent admission to a care home, intermediate
care services, or intensive packages of care at home. No decisions on where people
are best supported should be made before all information from a comprehensive old
age assessment information has been evaluated, including information from medical
assessments and a thorough exploration of rehabilitation potential.
Within the Comprehensive Assessment, the full MDS-HC with all triggered CAPs
explored provides a sound base for a comprehensive old age assessment.
Once all indicated assessments by health and social care professionals have
been completed, the assessments equate with a comprehensive old age assessment.
Eligibility criteria for long-term care should reflect assessment information.
These criteria can be checked against MDS-HC assessment items.
This process provides objective assessment information to support decisions based
on eligibility criteria. Professional opinion, based on the objective assessment
data and taking into consideration the client’s and carer’s views, will lead to
a decision whether or not to go into a nursing or residential home.
The Registered Nursing Contribution to Care can be determined using the RUG
algorithm, which can be completed as a stand-alone assessment or derived
directly from a full MDS-HC assessment.
5. The diagram illustrates how the MDS assessment system is linked to care
and management concerns that are key to providing high quality care and good
quality of life for older people.
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The goal of the interRAI
MDS assessment instruments is to support
best practices in the care of older people, and to maintain and promote independence
wherever possible by identifying opportunities for rehabilitation. The high-quality,
comprehensive, standardised MDS-RAI assessments identify the residents’ needs,
problems, risks of problems developing, and potential for improvement. Where any of
these are identified, a Resident Assessment Protocol (RAP) is triggered. These can be
identified manually, or provided through use of other software that supports the MDS.
The triggers provide a link between the assessment and care planning guidelines
contained in the RAPs. The RAPs support the assessor by providing guidance on best
practices for care planning. Research has shown that the use of the MDS-RAI leads
to improved quality care.
Aggregated assessment information, together with the integral MDS outcome scales
and quality indicators, enable quality of care to be monitored at the facility level.
The MDS-RAI includes Resource Utilisation Groups Version III (RUG-III), a resource
use case-mix system that reliably relates the characteristics of residents to the
amount of care time that they require. RUG-III was developed in the United States
but has been extensively validated in other countries, including the UK.
6. Completing a comprehensive MDS assessment takes between 1 and 1.5 hours depending on
the complexity of the needs of the person being assessed. When an assessor is
experienced in its use it can frequently be completed in 45 minutes.
7.
Published research has shown that the MDS is always completed
reliably, so the same answer will be recorded whoever does the
assessment. The assessment items themselves are unambiguous
and have been thoroughly validated.
The research also shows that the MDS
scales and algorithms are valid and reliable and that,
compared with usual assessment instruments, the MDS is fully
completed and that assessors rarely fail to complete the
individual items. These characteristics mean that the data
from routine use of the MDS can be used not only for
care-planning and management purposes, but is of sufficient
quality to be used for research.
8.
Software applications extend the value your organisation gets
from the MDS assessment data. CAPs can be calculated
automatically. Also quality indicators, resource utilisation,
and RNCC levels are derived by the software. Contact TSO
Customer
Services team on 0870 243 0123 or contact
TSO at: PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN. Email: customer.services@tso.co.uk
Email: customer.services@tso.co.uk
9.
TSO publishes the title ‘SAP Ability Assessment for Older
People: The MDS User Manual’. This helps practitioners work
successfully with the range of MDS tools. There is also a
support manual called the ‘SAP Ability Assessment for Older
People: the CAPs Manual’. This explains how the CAPs are
derived, and how to develop a care-plan that fully takes
account of the issues uncovered in the assessment. The details
of how to order are on the Buy Now page.
10. A one-time design was done to
make the TSO available as print and electronic forms. The
benefit to Social Services is that you can start today using
paper, and switch to an electronic form later on. You may also
wish to use an electronic forms environment for gathering and
display of
SAP assessment information whilst feeding back to other applications.
For further details, demonstration or pricing please contact
us at: tsotelesales@tso.co.uk
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