Electronic care records & assessment tools

The College is working with members to ensure the key assessment tools that support occupational therapy practice are approved for use in electronic care record systems

The introduction of electronic care records in NHS England provides an opportunity for assessment data to be recorded directly into each service user’s electronic care record. The coded assessment data will support direct patient care and secondary purposes such as commissioning, performance management and research. This will be possible once system developers have designed electronic templates for each approved assessment tool.
 
The national approval process is managed by Connecting for Health in England. Professional bodies and associations nominate individual assessment tools that are known to be widely used and best practice for a specific assessment purpose. Connecting for Health checks each nomination, verifies details of each assessment, and resolves copyright and licensing issues. The national list of approved clinical assessment tools is updated every month. System developers then update their work programmes to commission and design electronic templates for use in their electronic care record systems.
 
Download National Clinical Content List 
 
In 2008 the College nominated more than 30 key assessment tools that are essential to support occupational therapy practice. A further eight clinical assessments were nominated in June 2010, using the new, and more rigorous nomination process. Connecting for Health are not accepting any further nominations at the moment. The College will nominate additional  key assessment tools that support occupational therapy practice, once Connecting for Health are accepting nominations again.