Ladder Outcomes

Introduction

Many services are required to report on measurements of outcomes. This may be in the form of ongoing assessments or survey.

Ladder outcomes can be used for;

• Progress - Measuring the difference a service has made to a person.
• Scale - recording the scale of a person, 'on a scale of 1 to 10 how do you feel?'

It is sometimes easier to create outcomes as an Extension Database. They can offer greater flexibility and also report in an easier manner.

Progress based outcomes

Progress based outcomes are used to measure the difference made by a service. Normally you would have a starting assessment to score what level is a person currently at and then an assessment at the end. After the final assessment the progress can be measured. Often this type of assessment would have various questions or sections that would be looked at, this would be the Outcome Groups. The idea is that a person climbs the ladder to success.

Looking at the above image we can see three ladders, each one with an overall heading, this is the Main heading. Each rung of the ladder is the Sub Heading of the outcome. Each Sub Heading would have a score, 1 being at the bottom (or a person at their worse). The next rung up the ladder would have a score of two and so on. Normally it would be 5 or 10 steps to a ladder.

Scale based outcome

You may wish to record an assessment based on a scale. Often this would be used to assess someone's feelings about themselves or about a service they have receive. The image below gives an example of a Pain Scale (on a scale from 1 -10 ten how much pain do you feel?);

File:OL scale.png

If you have several questions in the assessment/survey you can use Outcome Groups to group them together.

Setting Up Outcomes

On the setup page there is a heading bar which will display;

• Existing Groups and Stars - Clicking on these groups will display the associated ladders.
• All Main Headings - All ladders, displaying the associated groups.
• Unknown - Any ladder that has not been grouped.

If you select a group that has associated ladders you will also have a sort option. To re-order the list click on the 'Enable Reorder' option;

This will expand to give you the option to reorder by A-Z or Z-A as well as an undo feature. Click 'Disable Reorder' to return to the previous display order.

Each ladder associated with the selected group option will be displayed in the list.

Creating a new ladder

There are two steps to setting up a new ladder;

The Main Heading - The question being asked;

Example 1: Level of emotional support
Example 2: On a scale of 10 how much pain do you have?

The Sub Heading - The answer or level on the scale;

Example 1: I do not feel emotionally supported or I feel fully supported
Example 2: 1 A lot of pain, 2, 3.......10 No pain.

Creating a new Main Heading (Ladder)

At the bottom of the page click the 'Create New Main Heading' to enter a new ladder.

• Specify the Main Heading (generally the question asked).
• If you wish to group this ladder (main heading) select the Outcome Group from the drop down.
• Complete the administrator notes (not displayed on entry screen).
• Leave 'Active Outcome' set to 'Yes'
• Click save to create the ladder.

You will be able find the new Main Heading (Ladder) under the group you specified or 'All Main Headings'.

Creating a new Sub Heading (Question/Step on scale)

• Click on the 'Edit Sub-Heading' button to the right of the newly created Main Heading (Ladder)/or on an existing ladder to add new options..
• Click on the 'Create New Sub-Heading' button.
• Complete the Sub-Heading' name (question or level on scale)

Examples; I do not feel emotionally supported or 1 A lot of pain

• Description is used for administrator notes.
• Steps needed to achieve this level is a Deprecated Feature.
• Enter the Progress (Achievement) Level (1 is lowest) - This is the position on the ladder or scale. Usual 1 is the lowest level, or a person at their worse.
• Leave Sub-Heading Active on 'Yes' to use this option, 'No' will disable the option. IMPORTANT - Setting the Sub-Heading to not active will remove any score recorded on any record. This is a feature that allows you to reset recorded scores en mass

Once complete, click "Save Details" and you will be returned to the display of subheadings. Repeat the above steps to add all the required Sub-Headings.

See below examples of two completed sets of Sub-Headings;

Sub-Headings for a ladder named 'Level of emotional Support'

Sub-Headings for a ladder named 'On a scale of 1-5 how much pain are you in?'

Activating the Ladders

The ladders are accessed via the Summary tab on a person/org record under the outcome column. Before they are used they do need to be configured on the projects that wish to use these ladders.

See Project Setup on how to setup projects and how to access the Additional Data Collection tab where they are configured.