The Signal Score provides an indication of when a patient's most recent score on the outcome questionnaire indicated significantly less change than expected. If the patients score exceeds the Signal Score, the patient can be said to be "off track" and possibly at risk for a poor outcome. Research by Michael Lambert and others has demonstrated that providing clinicians with feedback on "signal cases" tends to result in better outcomes for these at risk cases.
The threshold used to identify a signal case may vary depending on the needs of organization and actions taken. A higher threshold results in fewer cases targeted but increased confidence that the signal cases are at high risk. The default setting for the Signal Score contained within the Clinician's Decision Support Toolkit targets approximately 15% of patients at any given assessment.
