The Use of interRAI Scales Across Healthcare Settings: Building a Bridge Between Evidence and Practice

Equitable and effective service and policy decisions require reliable evidence-based information; interRAI assessments offer objective data across broad health determinants for multiple purposes. This article aims to highlight selected embedded scales and algorithms and illustrate their prevalence across settings using Canadian data. Ten measures are described along with examples of subsequent use in predicting outcomes, adverse events, and resource utilization across diverse populations and jurisdictions. Prevalence rates for nine scales and algorithms were available across home and community care, Long Term Care (LTC), and inpatient settings. Higher rates of disability in function and cognition were seen in LTC and CCC, whereas palliative care has highest prevalence of health instability. Overlaps in key areas suggest the need to provide targeted services irrespective of setting. Overall, this article highlights the potential of scales and algorithms to capture key clinical information across the broader health determinants while minimizing assessment burden.