Consensus on 'core/essential' and 'ideal world' criteria of a pre-discharge occupational therapy home assessment.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: There are no standard criteria for an occupational therapy (OT) home assessment for patients about to be discharged from an acute rehabilitation facility. This has implications for benchmarking, quality improvement and research. The aim of this paper is to establish 'core/essential' and 'ideal world' elements of OT home assessments for patients about to be discharged from acute rehabilitation settings.

Methods: A piloted open-ended questionnaire initiated a Delphi study involving knowledgeable OTs working in Australian public and private acute rehabilitation settings. 'Core/essential' and 'ideal world' elements of OT home assessments were confirmed when 70% agreement was reached.

Results: Of 242 facilities in two Australian states, 110 were invited to participate, and 81 OTs from 84 facilities did so. Four Delphi rounds were required to reach consensus on 30 'core/essential' and 25 'ideal world' elements.

Conclusion: Standard use of 'core/essential' pre-discharge home assessment elements should improve standards of care and the quality of discharge planning. OTs should consider including 'ideal world' criteria in pre-discharge assessments to optimize recently ill patients' community independence.