Using a case report of a patient with spinal cord injury to illustrate the application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) during multidisciplinary patient management

Rauch, Alexandra, Escorpizo, Reuben, Riddle, Daniel L., Eriks-Hoogland, Inge, Stucki, Gerold and Cieza, Alarcos (2010) Using a case report of a patient with spinal cord injury to illustrate the application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) during multidisciplinary patient management. Physical Therapy, 90 (7), 1039-1052. (doi:10.2522/ptj.20090327). (PMID:20508027)

Abstract

Background and purpose: Physical therapists require a comprehensive assessment of a patient's functioning status to address multiple problems in patients with severe conditions. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is the universally accepted conceptual model for the description of functioning. Documentation tools have been developed based on ICF Core Sets to be used in multidisciplinary rehabilitation management and specifically by physical therapists. The purposes of this case report are: (1) to apply ICF-based documentation tools to the care of a patient with spinal cord injury and (2) to illustrate the use of ICF-based documentation tools during multidisciplinary patient management.

Case description: The patient was a 22-year-old man with tetraplegia (C2 level) who was 5 months postinjury. The report describes the integration of the ICF-based documentation tools into the patient's examination, evaluation, prognosis, diagnosis, and intervention while he participated in a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program for 2 months.

Outcomes: The patient's comprehensive functioning status at the beginning of the program, the rehabilitation goals, the intervention plan, and his improvements in functioning following rehabilitation and the according goal achievement were illustrated with physical therapy-specific and multidisciplinary ICF-based documentation tools.

Discussion: This case report illustrates how the ICF-based documentation template for physical therapists summarizes all relevant information to aid the physical therapist's patient management and how ICF-based documentation tools for multidisciplinary care complement one another and thus can be used to enhance multidisciplinary patient management. In addition, the ICF assists in clarifying clinician roles as part of a multidisciplinary team. The case report demonstrates that the ICF can be a viable framework both for physical therapy and multidisciplinary management and for clinical documentation.

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