An audit of the use of the Barthel Index in palliative care

The Barthel Index (Mahoney and Barthel, 1965) is an objective tool which assesses an individual's ability to perform activities of daily living; for example, personal care, mobility, transfers, bathing and feeding. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the Index could be used with patients with life-threatening illnesses who are admitted to the inpatient intermediate care unit, to aid clinical practice, establish patients' current level of function, and highlight any progress or deterioration in abilities. The overall aim was to facilitate discharge planning and ensure that patients were managed in their preferred place of care. This was a clearly defined group of patients in a specific clinical area. The authors recognise that to improve consistency of findings, the study may need to be applied to a larger cohort of patients with a greater research emphasis. The article presents the results of an audit of 50 patients. The findings suggest that those patients with a low Barthel score on admission, or those with a score dropping by ten or more per week, are significant predictors of a short prognosis. It concludes that the Barthel Index would be a useful tool in the community to prevent inappropriate admission for those with a low score where the patient wishes to die at home. It could also be used as a monitoring tool to help discharge planning and fast-tracking to the preferred place of care in inpatient settings, and may also assist in community health care (CHC) planning.