Objective
An evaluation of severity of illness measures completed at the point of inpatient admission, measures gradual inpatient outcomes for service users’ and carried out when inpatient treatment is concluded. These scales are completed by clinicians using the Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) in case of adults and the Clinical Global Assessment Scale in the case of adolescents.
Following admission each service user’s level of functioning and illness severity is evaluated by a clinician or multidisciplinary team (MDT) either between admission and the first MDT meeting or at a first MDT meeting. This is referred to as the CGIS or CGAS baseline score and this scoring is repeated at each MDT meeting including at the final MDT meeting preceding discharge. This is referred to as the final CGIC or CGAS score. An audit of the CGI and CGAS completion rates was also conducted.
Background
The Clinical Global Impressions Scale (CGI) is a standard, widely used mental health assessment tool. The complete CGI scale consists of three different global measures designed to rate the effectiveness of a particular treatment: the CGI-Severity (CGIS) that is used to establish the severity of psychopathology at point of assessment; the CGI-Change or Improvement (CGIC) which compares the service user baseline condition to her/his current condition following care, treatment or intervention; the efficacy index that compare the service user’s baseline condition to a ratio of current therapeutic benefit and severity of side effects. Out of these three measures the CGIS and the CGIC are used frequently in clinical and research settings.
The CGIS asks a clinician the question: “Considering your total clinical experience with this particular population, how mentally ill is the patient at this time?” which is rated on the following seven-point scale: 1=normal, not at all ill; 2=borderline mentally ill; 3=mildly ill; 4=moderately ill; 5=markedly ill; 6=severely ill; 7=among the most extremely ill patients.
The CGIC rates on a seven point scale the following query: “Compared to the patient’s condition on admission to this project (prior to intervention), this patient’s condition is: 1=very much improved since the initiation of treatment; 2=much improved; 3=minimally improved; 4=no change from baseline (the initiation of treatment); 5=minimally worse; 6= much worse; 7=very much worse since the initiation of treatment.”
The Children’s Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) provides a global measure of level of functioning in children and adolescents. CGAS is scored by the MDT on a scale of 1 to 100 which reflects the individual’s overall functioning level where impairments in psychological, social and occupational/school functioning are considered. Scoring for the CGAS ranges from 1, in need of constant supervision, to 100, superior functioning.
Data Collection Strategy
This report used data extracted from the Patient Administration System (PAS) which provided details on the St. Patrick’s University (SPUH) and St. Edmundsbury (SEH) Hospital admissions and admissions to the Willow Grove Adolescent Unit (WG).
A random sample was chosen from admissions to SPUH and SEH. The sample size was calculated for both approved centres together with 95% confidence level and 5% level of accuracy. Then the cases were randomly selected by employing stratified and quasi random sampling strategies. This ensured appropriate representation of cases for each ward within the services.
An electronic database of CGAS scores recorded for admissions generated by the Willow Grove MDT provided CGAS data for the Adolescent sample. All WGAU inpatient admissions were included for the CGAS adolescent dataset.
The anonymised dataset collected for each selected case included the following variables:
- Service user age and gender,
- Admission ICD code (primary and additional),
- Date of admission,
- Admission ward,
- Re-admission rate,
- Date of discharge,
- Baseline assessment scale score (CGIS or CGAS respectively)– recorded on the Individual Care Plan on or before the first MDT meeting,
- Date recorded against the baseline score,
- Final assessment scale score (CGIC or CGAS respectively)– recorded on the MDT meeting care plan review document,
- Date recorded against the final score.