AlphaFIM
What It Measures
The AlphaFIM Instrument is a short functional assessment done in the acute care hospital, usually within the first few days after admission, to gauge how much help a patient currently needs with basic daily tasks. It uses six items pulled from the full 18-item FIM Instrument: eating, grooming, bowel management, toilet transfers, expression, and memory. For a patient who can walk 150 feet or more, eating and grooming are swapped out for walking and bed transfers.
Each item is rated on the same seven-level FIM scale, and a web-based tool converts those ratings into a projected score plus an estimate of the burden of care in hours. Teams use the result to help decide where a patient should go next, and the score travels with them into the rehabilitation setting.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: Use of the AlphaFIM requires a license from UDSMR, and licenses are held by organizations rather than individuals.
