Quantifying client need for care in the community: a strategy for managed care

The Community Health Intensity Rate Scale (CHIRS) is a tool that provides an index of a client's need for care. Emphasis in healthcare has shifted from episodes of illness to covered lives and managed care. CHIRS contains all the elements for holistically determining the intensity of a client's need for care and the environmental, psychosocial, and health behaviors of the client. The CHIRS has been utilized with a variety of community health populations. Each application of CHIRS provided feedback to the researchers for use in revising CHIRS. This article reports the findings of a study which tested the validity and reliability of the refined version of CHIRS. The validity and reliability needed further refinement at the indicator level. The study produced a more practical tool for determining intensity of need for clients in the community.