Clinical Frailty Score
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the need to properly assess elderly patients to the forefront of a lot of what we do in Emergency Medicine. NICE have emphasised this in their recent rapid guidance.
Frailty is a state of increased vulnerability to poor resolution of homoeostasis after a stressor event, which increases the risk of adverse outcomes
Clegg A, Young J, Iliffe S, et al. Frailty in elderly people. Lancet (London, England)2013;381:752-62. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)62167-9
Just as you wouldn't assess an unconscious patient without using the Glasgow Coma Scale so you shouldn't describe a patient as 'frail' without using an appropriate assessment. This is where the Clinical Frail Score (CFS)© comes in.
The Clinical Frailty Scale© (CFS) was introduced in 2005 by the second clinical examination of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA) as a way to summarize the overall level of fitness or frailty of an older adult after they had been evaluated by an experienced clinician.
In 2007 the CFS© was expanded from a 7-point scale to the present 9-point scale.
Here’s our Take Visually on The Clinical Frailty Scale© including tips on its use to help you assess elderly patients appropriately.