Dementia: Functional Status Assessment

ACP does not support QPP measure 282: “Dementia: Functional Status Assessment.” Although this practice may help clinicians determine appropriate management of patients with dementia, there is a lack of high-quality evidence examining the impact of assessment on clinical outcomes or on appropriate assessment intervals and it is unclear how clinicians should manage assessment results. Furthermore, numerator specifications include functional status assessment tools that will not necessarily benefit clinical outcomes. Physicians don’t generally use these tools to assess functional status in an outpatient setting and they do not generally inform clinical decisions. It is burdensome for clinicians to adhere to formal assessment protocols without evidence to support the benefit of the intervention on patient outcomes. A more meaningful measure may encourage assessments that are likely to lead to meaningful improvements in clinical outcomes. This measure may appropriately assess the performance of occupational therapists that are more familiar with the assessment tools included in the specifications.