elsbets

Thank you for your for your feedback! Do you often see FAST scores that are contradicted by clinical notes (i.e., a clinical note stating something like "spoke at length with patient in regards to their time in the Navy and their world travels" in a patient who is described elsewhere as having a FAST of 7B)? This is something I have been coming across. I've also noticed it tends to be used for all dementia types due to lack of a better tool. Is there something else you or your institution uses for non-Alzheimer's dementia? Thanks again! Elsbet

I've been working on a QI project assessing documentation of decline in dementia patients and I wanted to reach out to people at other organizations about their use of the FAST staging tool in patients with dementia their hospice diagnosis. At my institution, the FAST is currently recorded by the RN and the provider for every certification period. My work auditing charts here has shown that the documented FAST is often not supported by clinical notes and that providers and nurses often score the same patient differently. I wanted to ask you if your organization uses the FAST, and if so, is it used for all dementia patients or only those with Alzheimer's? How often is it tabulated? Have you noticed discrepancy between provider and nurse scoring? Are there other measures of decline in dementia patients that you find yourself referring to or weighing more heavily than the FAST for recertification purposes? Thank you for your feedback!!!