Evidence supporting the use of a subjective staff evaluation to assess the benefit of rehabilitation in hemodialysis patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation.

Background: We questioned whether the introduction of a subjective evaluation of patient-specific goals, could be used as a valid method to assess the effectiveness of inpatient rehabilitation.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, all admissions to the UHN hemodialysis rehabilitation service between April 2013 and August 2016 were included. We introduced a system of subjective assessment, performed by the team at the time of admission and discharge. We evaluated Functional Independence Measure (FIM®) score and KDQoL for objective measures of physical function and patient-reported quality of life.

Results: A total of 201 patients were included. The median FIM score at discharge correlated well with the subjective staff evaluation. FIM score changes for those with evaluations for Success, Partial success, and Not Successful were 28 [interquartile range (IQR) 20-34], 24 [IQR18-31], 16 [IQR 11-34] respectively. The median PCS at discharge for those deemed to have Success was 37.4 [IQR31.0, 44.7], and for those with Partial success & Not Successful 28.8 [IQR 22.4, 39.2]. There was no correlation with MCS scores (55.2 [IQR 51.2, 60.2], 58.4 [IQR 50.1, 63.1] respectively).

Conclusions: These results suggest the subjective staff evaluation is a brief but valid assessment of patient outcome for dialysis patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation.