Study Emphasizes Critical Need for Gaylord Specialty Healthcare's GOT-Cog, a Comprehensive Cognitive Screening Tool to Enhance Inpatient Occupational Therapy Treatment

WALLINGFORD, Conn., Jan. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, a nonprofit rehabilitation-focused healthcare system headquartered in Wallingford, Connecticut, announces the publication of a study in the January/February edition of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy. Titled "Content Validity Testing of a Novel Cognitive Screen, the Gaylord Occupational Therapy Cognitive (GOT-Cog^®), to Improve Inpatient Occupational Therapy Treatment Planning," the research conducted in the long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) setting outlines the development and content validity testing of a new cognitive screening tool designed to revolutionize inpatient occupational therapy.

Co-authored by Henry Hrdlicka, PhD, and Emily Meise, MS, OTR/L, the study from Gaylord's Milne Institute for Healthcare Innovation emphasizes the critical need for a comprehensive cognitive screen to assist with occupational therapy treatment planning in the LTACH and other inpatient settings. Currently, existing cognitive screens fall short of capturing all essential cognitive domains crucial for effective Occupational Therapy treatment planning. The newly developed Gaylord Occupational Therapy Cognitive (GOT-Cog^®) screen aims to address this gap.

The objective of the research was to create and quantify the content validity of GOT-Cog through a Delphi-style expert panel review. The panel, consisting of occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, a physician assistant, and neuropsychologists, meticulously evaluated the relevance, essentiality, and clarity of each item in the 22-item cognitive screen.

The study concluded that GOT-Cog exhibits overall excellent content validity in the LTACH setting and is poised for construct validity testing.

GOT-Cog is positioned as the first standardized cognitive screen tailored for the inpatient therapy setting, LTACH or otherwise, and offers a holistic evaluation of cognitive domains essential for occupational therapy treatment planning. By focusing on areas such as orientation, verbal fluency, visuospatial tasks, and functional problem-solving, GOT-Cog will enable therapists to identify patients with functional cognitive deficits earlier in their recovery process. This will facilitate targeted treatment planning, early referrals to specialists, and the delivery of comprehensive care.

This innovative approach to cognitive screening is anticipated to significantly impact occupational therapy practice by guiding clinicians in identifying key problem areas, developing effective treatment strategies, and enhancing patients' independence with activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living.

Currently, Gaylord Specialty Healthcare researchers are assessing the construct validity, interrater reliability, intrarater reliability, and responsiveness of GOT-Cog by recruiting inpatients in the LTACH setting. Once construct validity testing is complete, copies of the GOT-Cog screen will be available by request and at www.Gaylord.org.

About Gaylord Specialty Healthcare: 
Gaylord Specialty Healthcare is a rehabilitation-focused, nonprofit health system headquartered in Wallingford, Connecticut, that provides inpatient and outpatient care for people at every point in their journey from illness or injury to maximum recovery.

Gaylord Specialty Healthcare is anchored by Gaylord Hospital, a long-term acute care hospital, and includes Gaylord Outpatient Services and Gaylord Physical Therapy for patients who require diagnosis and treatment on an outpatient basis. Gaylord's Milne Institute for Healthcare Innovation is a hub for accelerating world-class rehabilitative research, technology development, and innovation to improve the quality of life and function of people around the world. Together, these entities deliver a complete continuum of rehabilitative care driven by clinical experience, innovation, and human compassion.

SOURCE Gaylord Specialty Healthcare

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