RCSLT Online Outcome Tool

Therapy Outcome Measures

NEWS

December 2024

If you are the lead contact for your service on ROOT, you should have received our Autumn newsletter. Do take a moment to read through the important updates. If you haven't received the newsletter and think you should have, please let us know at root@rcslt.org

We need your views! The RCSLT has launched an important consultation on the terminology members need for recording speech and language therapy diagnoses or reason for input. It is envisaged that, once these terms have been agreed, they will be used on ROOT to replace the ICD-10 codes for ‘communication and swallowing disorder descriptor’. We hope that moving to SNOMED CT will ensure terms that are more appropriate and correspond to local patient record systems. However, we need your input to make sure these meet your requirements. Find out more https://www.rcslt.org/news/take-part-in-our-consultation-on-clinical-terminology/

Come along to our next drop in! We hold drop-in sessions on Teams on a monthly basis. These are a great way to meet the team and learn more about the ROOT. We will be on hand to answer any questions you may have whether you’re early on in your ROOT journey or wondering how to get the most out of your data. Our next ROOT drop-in session on Teams is on Wednesday 11 December.

About the RCSLT Online Outcome Tool (ROOT)

The ROOT supports speech and language therapists (SLTs) with collecting and collating Therapy Outcome Measures (TOMs) (Enderby and John, 2015; 2019) and generating reports. The reports generated by the ROOT can be used by SLTs to inform clinical decision-making, drive quality improvement and demonstrate the impact of speech and language therapy. More information is provided below, or you can contact root@rcslt.org.

Therapy Outcome Measures for Rehabilitation Professionals

Pamela Enderby and Alexandra John

The Therapy Outcome Measure (TOM) allows professionals from many disciplines working in health, social care and education to describe the relative abilities and difficulties of a patient/client in the four domains of impairment, activity, participation and wellbeing in order to monitor changes over time. TOM has been rigorously tested for reliability and clinical validity. It is quick and simple to use, taking just a few minutes to complete, and is used for treatment planning, clinical management, audit and research. It allows for the aggregations of data so that comparisons can be made for the purposes of internal and external benchmarking.

© Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists