Goal Attainment Scaling: An Effective Outcome Measure for Rural and Remote Health Services

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) as an effective, multidisciplinary measure of client outcomes for rural and remote health services. Goal Attainment Scaling was adopted by the Spinal Outreach Team (SPOT) as a client-focussed evaluation tool, as it is sensitive to the individual nature of clients' presenting issues and the multidisciplinary focus of the team. It enables individualised goals to be set on a five-point scale. Goal Attainment Scaling was introduced to the SPOT service after a pilot trial established guidelines for its effective implementation. An ongoing review process ensures that goal scaling remains realistic and relevant. Service outcomes can be effectively summarised using a frequency distribution of GAS scores. One of the important benefits of GAS is its facilitation of collaborative goal setting between clinician and client. Goal Attainment Scaling is recommended to rural and remote multidisciplinary health services because of its ability to summarise outcomes from heterogeneous service activities.KEY WORDS: goal attainment, outcome measures, rural health services, spinal cord injury.

Goal setting with caregivers of adults in the community: a mixed methods systematic review

“…It was used in the pharmacological studies to evaluate the clinical meaningfulness of a drug intervention from the perspective of the caregivers and care recipients [64,78]. Although the GAS does not provide directions on how to set goals in a collaborative forum, the pharmacological studies and research from other areas of clinical practice [79][80][81] illustrate the utility of the tool in guiding goal focused discussions. The COPM, on the other hand, provides useful instructions for engaging the caregiver and care recipient in setting goals and measuring outcomes as demonstrated in Graff et al [58].…”

The use of Goal Attainment Scaling in a community health promotion initiative with seniors

“…Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) [17-21] is a method for setting goals and measuring the degree of goal achievement by creating an individualized 5-point scale (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2) of potential outcomes for each activity undertaken. Each scale is created de novo around the expected level of achievement of a particular individual, program or project goal.…”

“…It is this approach to evaluation that we are concerned with here, and the use of one particularly effective evaluation method, Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS), in measuring such achievement. This article will describe the use of GAS [17-21] as a potential means of measuring progress and outcomes in such a multi-faceted and complex situation as community health promotion and community development initiatives.…”

Goal scaling for low back pain in primary care: development of a semi‐structured interview incorporating minimal important change

“…This produced a measure, which was as much driven by the need to demonstrate clinical efficacy, as it was by a patient's aspirations. More recently, GAS has been utilized in a variety of clinical settings [3–12].…”