The ECB renal patient questionnaire: an assessment tool to determine renal patients' needs for immediate social work...

Medicare mandates that all persons with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) receive clinical social work assessment and intervention for psychosocial needs. Crisis intervention rather than preventative social service often occurs because of an annual increase in the number of patients diagnosed with ESRD, tightening of social work budgets, larger and more complex case loads, diminishing resources and staff, increased patient acuity, and emphasis on outpatient care. To decrease crisis intervention episodes, enhance allocation of time and resources, and improve quality of patient care, the authors investigated the creation of a short, self-administered, easily scored instrument to predict ESRD patients in need of immediate social work intervention. In 4 research phases, from 1986 to 1994, with 791 subjects from all ESRD treatment modalities, the ECB Renal Patient Questionnaire (ECB) was developed. The ECB is a 30-item questionnaire that is highly reliable, valid, easy to administer and score, and is accurate with frequent use. It has been tested nationally to establish scoring norms. The research phases are reported here to make the ECB more widely available to renal health care professionals.