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The Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living, commonly  referred to as the Katz ADL, is the most appropriate instrument to assess functional status as a measurement of the client’s ability to perform activities of daily living independently. Clinicians typically use the tool to assess function and detect problems in performing activities of daily living and to plan care accordingly. The Index ranks adequacy of performance in the six functions of bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, and feeding. Clients are scored yes/no for independence in each of the six functions. A score of 6 indicates full function, 4 indicates moderate impairment, and 2 or less indicates severe functional impairment.

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) are the basic self-care tasks that we initially learn as young children. They are sometimes referred to as “Basic Activities of Daily Living” (BADLs). They Include:

- Walking, or otherwise getting around the home or outside. The technical term for this is “ambulating.”

Feeding, as in being able to get food from a plate into one’s mouth.

- Dressing and grooming, as in selecting clothes, putting them on, and adequately managing one’s personal appearance.

- Toileting, which means getting to and from the toilet, using it appropriately, and cleaning oneself.

- Bathing, which means washing one’s face and body in the bath or shower.

- Transferring, which means being able to move from one body position to another. 

If a person is not fully independent with ADLs, then we usually include some information about the amount of assistance they require.  For each ADL, people can vary from needing just a little help (such as a reminder or “stand-by assist”) to full dependency, which requires others to do the task for them (ADLs were originally defined in the 1950s by a geriatrician named Sidney Katz, who was trying to define what it might look like for a person to recover to independence after a disabling event such as a stroke or hip fracture. So these measures are sometimes called the “Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living”).

As the nucleus of the caregiving process, care managers deal with the true complexities of each individual and must rally all of the players in a care plan around helping the patient reach optimum health. Aside from perfecting the balancing act of bringing multiple perspectives into harmony with each other, a care manager becomes outstanding when the patient’s safety, health, and well-being drive the decision-making. It is vital that care managers exercise the six key elements to success: acting as an advocate for the patient, exercising cultural competence and understanding social determinants of health, garnering support from leadership, utilizing effective communication skills, making data-informed decisions when prioritizing patient lists, and recognizing the human element in each patient. https://www.healthcatalyst.com