The Use of Physical Therapy ICU Assessments to Predict Discharge Home

To establish cutoff values for making recommendations for discharge to the home setting using standardized physical therapy assessments.

Retrospective study.

Five ICUs at a large academic medical center.

1,203 ICU patients.

None.

The Functional Status Score for the ICU and the ICU Mobility Scale were collected during the initial physical therapy assessment, at ICU discharge, and prior to hospital discharge. The Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care-Inpatient Mobility Short Form "6 clicks" was only collected during the initial physical therapy assessment. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were used to determine a potential cutoff value for discharge home. The Receiver Operating Characteristic was adjusted for ICU and hospital length of stay along with mobility status prior to hospital admission. Cutoff values were then determined by using Youden's Index. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were calculated based on these cut off values. The Functional Status Score for the ICU at ICU discharge was the best predictor of a discharge to the home setting in patients who had an ICU admission. The area under the curve for the Functional Status Score for the ICU at ICU discharge was 0.80. A Functional Status Score for the ICU score at ICU discharge of 19 or higher predicted discharge to home with a sensitivity of 82.9% and specificity of 73.6% CONCLUSIONS:: The Functional Status Score for the ICU at ICU discharge provided the best accuracy for making a timely recommendation for discharge home in patients who had an ICU admission.