Integrating Spinal Cord Injury – Quality of Life instruments into rehabilitation: Implementation science to guide adoption of patient-reported outcome measures

This study focuses on how to integrate a tool called SCI-QOL, which measures the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, into their rehabilitation care in the hospital. The researchers talked to clinicians to find out what makes it hard or easy to use SCI-QOL, and then came up with a plan to make it easier to use. The goal is to make sure that the tool is used in a way that helps patients and fits well into the way the hospital works.

• 1
  Clinicians identified that emotional health and social participation were the most important areas to assess using SCI-QOL during inpatient care.
• 2
  The study found that clinicians preferred administering SCI-QOL two weeks after admission, four weeks after admission, and three days before final discharge.
• 3
  The assessment champions recommended distribution of results to the attending physician, the SCI-QOL administrator, nursing and allied health managers, social workers, and staff psychologists.