Using the Australian therapy outcome measures for occupational therapy (AusTOMs-OT) to measure outcomes for clients following stroke

Purpose: To examine a range of measures used to document client outcomes following stroke, describe the Australian Therapy Outcome Measure for Occupational Therapy (AusTOMs-OT) as a tool suitable to measure multiple outcomes, and provide an overview of three outcomes research programs using this measure. The AusTOMs-OT was developed to measure global therapy outcomes and offers therapists a choice of 12 function-focused scales (including self-care, domestic life, community life, upper limb function). Therapists evaluate the client’s status globally in relation to four domains: the underlying impairment, activity limitation, participation restriction, and distress/well-being. Method: The first study presents a comparison of outcomes for clients at two Australian acute care facilities on the self-care scale (n = 82). Similarly, the second study presented is a comparison of stroke rehabilitation outcomes using the self-care scale for clients in Sweden and Australia (n = 70). The final study is an Australian benchmarking study using the upper limb scale (n = 40). Results: All three studies demonstrated that clients improved during therapy as measured on the four domains of AusTOMs-OT. Study 3 examined client outcomes at one facility against an agreed benchmark using the AusTOMs-OT upper limb scale and found that clients attained benchmark outcomes. Conclusions: A variety of outcome measures are available for clinicians to document the progress clients make during stroke rehabilitation. However, the AusTOMs-OT can measure global outcomes across multiple domains in just a few moments. Three studies reporting outcomes for clients with stroke using the AusTOMs-OT demonstrate its utility in documenting client change during therapy and for comparing or benchmarking services.