FRAILTY SCORE RECORDING ON HEALTH RECORDS
Frailty Score on Health Records
Frailty is a word used in healthcare which can often be misunderstood. You may have recently seen a frailty score appear on your health record. It is part of our NHS contract that we record a frailty score for all our patients 50 years and over. The addition of this Electronic Frailty Index score is to help identify individuals whom may benefit from further assessment and enable the practice to identify those whom may benefit the most. It is an administration code added to the healthcare record based only on existing information contained in the record, such as age, current health conditions, past medical history, and current medications. It is not an indicator of a clinical diagnosis of frailty nor can be used as such. The use of the index score is part of improving quality of care to individuals with frailty across Lancashire and South Cumbria.
Depending on your frailty score, when you attend the Practice, you may be asked about any frailty symptoms at your usual annual review or be invited in for a review to see one of our nurses, health and wellbeing coaches or social prescribing link workers.
What is Frailty? (Definition)
Frailty means that a person’s recovery from illness or injury can take longer or be more difficult. It is more common as we age but younger people can also live with frailty. While severe frailty can be comparatively easy to recognise and diagnose, lesser degrees of frailty may be more difficult to differentiate from normal ageing and early detection can help to keep patients well