Discharge Function Score

Identifying Attributes

Care Settings
Rehabilitation Care
Country
United States of America
Publishing Organisation
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP)
Type of Quality Indicator
Outcome
IOM Quality Dimension
Effectiveness
Domain
Functional Change

Defining Attributes

Definition

The Discharge Function Score calculates the percent of IRF patients who achieve a riskx0002adjusted expected function score at discharge.

Numerator

Number of IRF stays with an observed discharge function score that is equal to or greater than the calculated expected discharge function score

Denominator

Total number of IRF stays with an IRF-PAI record in the measure target period, which do not meet the exclusion criteria

Exclusions

Denominator Exclusions: The IRF stay is excluded if any of the following are true: • Patient has an incomplete stay. Patients with incomplete stays include patients who are discharged to an acute care setting (Short-stay Acute Hospital, Critical Access Hospital, Inpatient Psychiatric Facility, or Long-term Care Hospital) for longer than 3 calendar days; patients who die or leave an Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) against medical advice; and patients with a length of stay less than three days. • Patient is in a coma, persistent vegetative state, or locked-in state, or has complete tetraplegia, severe anoxic brain damage, cerebral oedema, or compression of brain. • Patient is younger than 18 years: Age in years is calculated based on the truncated difference between admission date and birth date, i.e., the difference is not rounded to the nearest whole number. • Patient is discharged to hospice (home or institutional facility).

Use of Risk Adjustment
Yes
Risk Adjustments

Risk-adjusting the observed discharge function score for each IRF stay with controls for patient characteristics such as admission function score, age, and clinical conditions

Stratifications

Collection and Reporting Attributes

Type of Data Collection
Administrative data
Data Collection Methods

Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility-Patient Assessment Instrument (IRF-PAI). This measure is calculated using 12 months (four quarters) of data.

Frequency of Data Collection
Quarterly
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
91
Reporting Methods

Publicly reported on CareCompare and by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/v9e4-nwhh#data-table).

Reporting Frequency
Quarterly
Reporting Frequency in Days
91
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
No

Source and Reference Attributes

Evidence Source

Acumen, 2023, Discharge Function Score for Inpatient Rehabiliation Facilities (IRFs) Technical Report, www.cms.gov/files/document/irf-discharge-function-score-technical-report-february-2023.pdf

Link to Measurement Tools

Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Patient Assessment Instrument (Not reported)

Quality Indicator Confirmed to be Part of a Program Used to Monitor Quality and Safety of Care Among Older People at a Population-Level between 2012-2022
Yes
Assessed by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care Collaborators as Generally Containing Good Properties (Importance and Scientific Acceptability)
No
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
02 December 2025