Functional status classification of institutionalized elderly in Israel

Abstract

In Israel, institution staff classify residents’ functional status as part of the routine governmental surveillance of institutions for semi‐independent and frail elderly. However, owing to a lack of clarity and specificity in the regulation which defines functional status categories, nurse surveyors, who conduct the routine surveillance of institutions, have begun to make their own estimates of functional status. Data were collected and compared on the functional status classification of 78 per cent of the elderly residents by institution staff and nurse surveyors. Data analysis showed that the poorer the functional status, the less congruity between the classifications. This has practical consequences for estimating the number and type of staff needed. It was found that the waste of resources and discrepancies caused by reclassification of the elderly by the nurse surveyors may be avoided by using more specific and precise definitions as suggested in this article.