Internationally there have been many changes in the delivery of health, education and social care services over the last decade. However, there are two central pillars which have become of increasing importance in most strategy and policy documents. These pillars emphasise the importance of sustaining and improving the quality of service delivery which is related to the second requirement to demonstrate cost effective service delivery. Services are required to collect, report and learn from outcome measurement.
This paper discusses the importance of outcome measures in improving Speech and Language Therapy services
The presentation will summarise the purpose, development and value of The Therapy Outcome Measure which is based on The World Health Organisations International Classification of Functioning. The method of establishing its reliability and clinical use in benchmarking and quality assurance will be detailed.
The Therapy Outcome Measure (TOM), (Enderby P., and John A 2015), is a psychometrically robust outcome measure helping all rehabilitation professionals to collect a core set of data on each patient they see in order to examine the impact of services.
Despite having a National Health Service there is substantial variation in the provision of services such as Speech and Language Therapy and Rehabilitation. Collecting information on outcomes has enabled comparison of strengths and weaknesses in different approaches to service delivery. Whilst some services have a greater impact upon the speech, language or swallowing impairment other service models may have a greater impact on functioning, social participation or well-being. This information allows professionals to review the focus of their provision and determine the impact of changes to delivery or staffing.
