Improving fall risk assessment in home care: interdisciplinary use of the Timed Up and Go (TUG)

The Timed Up and Go (TUG) is a popular, effective, and valid test of functional mobility and fall risk that is often completed by registered nurses (RNs) and physical therapists (PTs) throughout the course of a home care episode. As reimbursement becomes tied to outcomes, it is essential that all disciplines are consistent in their methods when administering the TUG. Results of this study confirm the hypothesis that test-specific training will significantly improve reliability of the TUG when completed by 2 different disciplines. The purpose of this article is to describe an initiative that provided tool-specific training to all clinical staff at our home care agency. The inter-rater reliability between PTs and RNs improved significantly from 0.77 to 0.86 (p = 0.001) after standardized training on administration of the TUG.