22-July-2020
It’s now becoming expected to record a patient’s CFS to help provide the right care for frail patients accessing our services. To help support this, in late April, NHS Elect proudly launched the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) app, a free application that frontline colleagues can download for use on mobile devices to undertake clinical frailty scoring in real time, with people aged 65 years and over*.
The Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale was originally developed by Professor Ken Rockwood of Dalhousie University, Canada and NHS Elect has worked with Ken on the app’s development. The CFS app works by responding with a simple yes or no to a series of nine questions, starting at the most severely frail end of the scale. The response to the questions identifies the level of frailty and provides a recommendation about how to approach that person’s care and treatment. The app is free to download from the Apple Store
here, and for Android devices
here.
In the three months since its launch, the response has been tremendous, with over 8,000 downloads worldwide. The feedback from colleagues has been very positive, with comments that they have found it very helpful in their assessment of older people with frailty.
“This is a great resource, simple and intuitive to use”
"Saves me digging in my diary for a laminated version and trying to read the small print!”
“Fantastic, very useful”
“This is very helpful, it simply works!”
“Very helpful, makes life so much easier” With frailty scoring of older people soon to become mandatory, the CFS app will be even more important in helping colleagues to determine a CFS score in a timely, accurate and consistent manner. Why not download the app to your phone today.
*Please note that the CFS has not been widely validated in younger populations (below 65 years of age), or in those with learning disability. It may not perform as well in people with stable long term disability such as cerebral palsy, whose outcomes might be very different compared to older people with progressive disability. We would advise that the scale is not used in these groups.
More about the clinical frailty scale >>