A classification of fire evacuation ability of home care clients based on the RAI-HC instrument.

Abstract

Home care and community-based services are being increasingly promoted in elderly care to prevent the need for institutional care. As more physically and cognitively dependent clients are being cared for in the community, concerns from fire safety perspectives have been raised. The issue becomes whether the home care client can evacuate safely from the residence in case of fire, where the available safe egress time is estimated to be around 2-3 minutes. The objective of this study was to develop a classification based on the RAI Home Care 2.0 assessment instrument for determining the evacuation ability of home care clients in the case of fire. The evacuation ability was assessed by fire safety experts who rated the evacuation ability of home care clients (N = 1,011). These data were linked to the persons RAI-HC assessment, which is a comprehensive assessment instrument of the person's functional performance and health status. The classification provides a reasonably accurate prediction of different risk categories in home care. The classification can be used for screening home care clients to determine their evacuation ability.