An outcome measure turns "he's better" into a number you can compare with last month. Heltio keeps the measures in one place, records assessments from them at visits and ties them to the goals in a treatment plan.
The first assessment with a given measure becomes the baseline. Every later one is compared with it and with the previous assessment.
How to do it
Look through the measure library
The Outcome Measures Library has two tabs: System Measures and Custom Measures.
The system measures are supplied by Heltio — VAS, NPRS, ODI, NDI, DASH, LEFS, PSFS, GROC and TSK among others. They are read-only: you cannot change their scoring, because comparability between practices is their whole value.
The measures are grouped into categories: Pain, Function, Disability, Quality of Life, Joint Specific, Region Specific, Psychological and Custom.
Build your own measure
Create Custom Measure asks for a Name, an Abbreviation, a Description, a Category and a Measure Type: Numeric Scale, Questionnaire, Single Value or Composite.
For a numeric scale you give a Minimum, a Maximum, a Step, a Direction, Endpoint Labels and a Unit. For a questionnaire you add questions and a Scoring Method: Sum, Average or Weighted Average.
Record an assessment
In the active session choose Outcome Assessment, then Select a measure and Fill Assessment. Once saved you will see the Score, and on later assessments also Change from baseline and Change from previous, described as Improved by or Worsened by.
Read the chart
The Outcome Scores chart plots successive measurements over time. The Goal line shows the target value from the plan, and the MCID Band — the area in which a change is too small to mean anything.
Compare Measures overlays several measures, and Normalize scores (0–100%) brings them onto a common axis when one measure runs from 0 to 10 and another from 0 to 100.
Ask the patient to fill one in
Request Patient Assessment sends the questionnaire to the patient portal. You can attach a message with instructions; the request expires after seven days.
The assessment history shows who filled it in: Practitioner or Patient.
Keep an eye on overdue requests
The Assessments screen collects requests from every treatment plan in three tabs: Overdue, Pending and Completed this week. The Days outstanding column says how long a request has been hanging.
Each row gives you Send reminder, Go to plan and Cancel request.
When something goes wrong
No baseline assessment on record.
What this means: This is the first assessment with this measure for this patient, so there is nothing to compare it with.
System measures are read-only.
What this means: The measures supplied by Heltio have fixed scoring so that results stay comparable.
Already reminded within the last hour
What this means: Heltio will not send a second reminder about the same assessment more often than once an hour.
No assessments recorded for this measure.
What this means: The measure is selected, but nobody has recorded a measurement with it yet.
Failed to load assessment requests.
What this means: The list of overdue requests did not finish loading.
Are you sure you want to delete this measure? This cannot be undone.
What this means: You are deleting a custom measure.
Who has access
PractitionerAssessments are recorded by the roles that document care. The measure library — that is, creating and deleting custom measures — is managed by the Owner and the Administrator from the practice settings.
The patient fills in only the questionnaires they were asked for, and sees only their own results.
Related
- Treatment plans — where measures turn into phase goals.
- Outcome tracking — the same data across the whole practice.
- Pre-visit forms — the other way of collecting data from the patient.
Related features
Treatment plans and phases
A course of therapy split into phases with advancement criteria, goals measured by outcome measures and a discharge at the end — run for one patient and visible to them in the portal.
Plan templates
A ready-made structure of phases, goals and programs for a recurring diagnosis — built once, then launched for one patient after another from a single dialog.
Patient record
The file of a single person — personal details, clinical profile, note history, measurements, consents, guardians and settlements, in the tabs down the left-hand side.
Outcome measures — measuring the effect of treatment
The questionnaires and scales you use to measure the effect of therapy: the measure library, recording an assessment in the patient record, goals with a clinically significant change threshold, and requests sent to the patient portal.
Pre-visit forms
The questionnaires a patient fills in in the portal before they arrive — medical history, consents, a pain questionnaire and the clinic's own forms.