What Do Busy Clinicians Value And Hate About Outcomes Measures? Harvey Dillon Outcomes measures are increasingly being used in audiology, as in other fields of health, with the aims of justifying expenditure and of improving outcomes for clients. An important, but overlooked aspect of outcomes measures is the way they are viewed by clinicians, as outcomes measures have the greatest potential to help clients if clinicians are involved in their administration and/or scoring. Australian Hearing audiologists were recently surveyed as to their views on the COSI and HAUQ outcomes measures. There was great diversity of opinion, but things valued about the COSI were its ability to give some insight into client expectations, the structure it gave to parts of the rehabilitation program, the rapport and continuity it encouraged, and the guidance it gave as to when a program should be concluded. The HAUQ was valued for its ability to detect problems the client was experiencing with the hearing aids. The major criticisms of the COSI were that it largely duplicates what a good clinician already records in the file notes, and that it is too time-consuming. The major criticism of the HAUQ was that some questions are misinterpreted by clients. |