[Ergotherapy assessment: field study of acceptance, practicability and process quality]

There is need for comprehensive assessment of patients suitable for occupational therapy. The "Ergotherapeutische Assessment" (EA) occupational therapy assessment instrument has been developed recently by a group of experts in the field. Its main purpose is to significantly support occupational therapists in diagnostics, planning, communication and evaluation of therapeutic outcome. In a first step, EA was tested in a field study with regard to practicability, acceptance, and its effects on process quality. The EA was applied in 329 patients by 22 occupational therapists (office, institution) who had been specially trained (handbook, instruction session) prior to the study. In addition, participants had to answer standardized evaluation forms with respect to the general therapeutic success, relevant functional changes possibly not covered by the EA, and professional benefit in the areas under investigation. In summary, the value for practicability as described using a 10-point scale was 5.8, and 7.6 for acceptance. With regard to process quality, the ratings were 7.3 for diagnostic effect, 6.0 for definition of therapeutic aims, and 6.8 for improvement of communication between members of the rehabilitation team. The internal consistency of the five individual modules of the instrument as calculated by Cronbachs alpha was between 0.72 and 0.95. Changes considered relevant by the participants and not reflected by the instrument accounted for 9% only. The correlation coefficient for the evaluated general success of the patients and category changes found on the basis of EA severity ratings was 0.48.