Pediatric Teleconference Audio File Posted

On December 13, 2007, UDSMR and the PARF Outcomes Assessment Workgroup hosted a national call to discuss outcomes assessment issues raised by pediatric rehabilitation providers. Participants discussed how best to group children into categories to accurately evaluate programs and compare groups across facilities.

The findings of the call are both consistent and enlightening. Participants have had trouble selecting a category or categorization related to the issues that bring children into their hospitals, including how to categorize an underlying impairment like cerebral palsy or sickle cell anemia. A consistent process was not apparent across providers. For the majority of participants, deciding how to categorize soft neurological issues and speech-related disorders was also problematic.

UDSMR is now considering and consolidating the information gathered on the call for possible changes to the WeeFIM® assessment tool. You can download the audio file here. We thank those of you who joined the initial call. For those who did not participate, please consider joining your peers on Friday, February 29, 2008, for the next scheduled call.

If you have questions about the conference call, or if you would like to register, contact Kevin Gibson, WeeFIM® Product Manager, at 716-817-7822.