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SLPs: What's in Your Bag?? By Mannaqure on September 30, 2015 What's your 'go-to' Standardized Assessment for clients with Dysphagia and/or Dysarthria?As an SLP working in today's ever-changing healthcare environment, feeling the constant pressures of productivity and efficiency, I'm sure that you'll agree that we all need to ensure we get the 'biggest bang' for our time and business. So, I ask, why not use a tool that yields all of the information you need about all of the salient aspects necessary to establish a comprehensive Plan of Care from the outset? Being a creature of habit, for years I administered the Mann Assessment of Swallow Ability (MASA) to my patients with Dysphagia, only to turn around and do more diagnostic testing using the Frenchay, for example, for my patients who also exhibited signs and symptoms of Dysarthria. The problem was though, that neither of my old 'stand-bys' provided me with standardized data regarding receptive or expressive language - not to mention cognitive function - thereby requiring me to administer further tests. At times, I would pull in subtests or portions from my 'old pals' the Boston or RIPA-G; but by this point, I was a couple of days into treatment, which meant modification of my original POC necessitating additional physician signatures or additional re-authorization - and we all know how well that goes over.  No matter what setting I found myself practicing in, whether it be home-health, skilled nursing or in the hospital, it never failed that my supervisor always complained when I requested the need to purchase numerous different assessment tools/kits/forms in order to conduct a comprehensive assessment. Regardless of where I worked, I needed a variety of tools in my arsenal of old friends: MASA, Frenchay, Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Exam, Ross Information Processing Assessment-Geriatric, etc. Yet none of these could help me with my Spanish-speaking patients, leaving me in a never-ending quest for additional costly materials and tools. Introducing MannaQure: Since I'm a 'one-stop-shopper'; I like to get everything I need in one place which I am now able to accomplish with MannaQure. Not only is MannaQure a comprehensive English-to-Spanish assessment of Dysphagia and Dysarthria, the test results provide me with everything I need to know about the patient's ability to comprehend directives, answer questions related to their swallow or speech production, as well as their ability to recall and learn new information - everything I need for my Intermediary regarding all patients on my caseload - whether they're English or Spanish speakers! Now I can write my entire treatment plan in one session which is efficient, cost-effective and makes my Director happy especially since she only has to make a 'Purchase Request' for one kit in my department. The Fiscal Intermediary who reimburses our Medicare/Medicaid claims also likes the baseline data included in the Initial Evaluation in the event I add more complex language or cognitive goals later on in the Episode of Care. As with any comprehensive assessment tool, I can use test items on which the patient scored poorly to aid in the development of my treatment plan. With MannaQure, this is particularly useful with my patients who speak Spanish-only; given I am not proficient at the word or phrase level in medical terminology related to swallowing or motor speech disorders - MannaQure does it all for me. MannaQure also provides me with a Stimulability Probe that I am able to use with my patients who may be less-responsive than those participating in a traditional dysphagia/dysarthria treatment program, to determine their candidacy for pre-feeding techniques such as thermal/tactile and/or olfactory/gustatory stimulation. Finally, a comprehensive standardized assessment tool that I am able to administer to my English and Spanish speaking clients in approximately 15-20 minutes which leaves time for the more important tasks of the day such as rendering quality patient care; the reason I became an SLP in the first place. For more information regarding MannaQure, visit www.MannaQure.com See you at the American Healthcare Association Conference in San Antonio October 4-7, 2015. Visit our Booth #331 to register to win a free MannaQure kit!
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