A collaborative approach in dementia care to improve clinical effectiveness and priorities for research through audit

To provide appropriate cost-effective care for an ageing population, realignment of care provision to conditions common in advanced age, notably, dementia and multi-morbidities is required. The use of outcome measures in practice may enable this.

A collaborative baseline audit was undertaken to understand how best to implement outcome measures into services for people with dementia across clinical settings.

An academic institution set up a 6-month collaborative baseline audit in 11 English sites. Measures comprised: symptoms/concerns (Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale for Dementia); Phase of Illness; functional status (Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Scale); and dementia severity (Functional Assessment Staging).

Measures were completed at first assessment for 225 people with dementia across nine sites. Their completion promoted comprehensive assessments, but challenges also existed, including recording the prevalence/severity of non-physical symptoms by proxy.

The joining together of clinical academic expertise enabled mobilisation of expert knowledge into and from clinical practice.