About

interRAI is a suite of over 20 clinical assessment instruments. In New Zealand, interRAI is the primary assessment instrument in aged residential care and home and community services for older people living in the community.

interRAI stands for ‘international Resident Assessment Instrument’.

The term interRAI™ refers to both the international organisation responsible for developing comprehensive clinical assessment systems and the suite of clinical assessments available.

interRAI assessments are comprehensive clinical assessments, which focus on a person’s function. They are specifically designed to show the assessor opportunities for improvement and/or any risks to the person’s health, which then form the basis of a care plan.

interRAI improves assessment and care

The Ministry of Health’s New Zealand Best Practice Guidelines (2003) identified interRAI as the assessment that is best suited to improving the assessment and care of older people in New Zealand. Following successful implementation projects, interRAI Services was established as a business unit at TAS in 2015.

interRAI assessments are available for all age groups and apply to different situations. In New Zealand, interRAI assessments help support older people to stay at home or to plan their care if they are in a residential facility.

Assessments are completed by health professionals

A health professional has a structured conversation with the person and their family or carers, makes observations and refers to other clinical information. The assessor codes this information on software which creates a profile of the person’s needs and opportunities.

Assessment information automatically goes to a data warehouse, so without any extra effort for the older person or the assessor, population data is available to be used for service development, planning and research.

interRAI assessments provide information to support decision making by health professionals, they do not specify the range, type or hours of services to be allocated. This is a follow up process determined by local service guidelines and options.

interRAI in New Zealand

‘To continuously improve health outcomes for New Zealanders as they age, and the effectiveness and efficiency of our health system by guiding and leading the use of interRAI instruments and the dissemination and use of interRAI information.’

Benefits of interRAI

interRAI has many benefits for New Zealanders, for example, improved clinical decision making, a common language between tools, enabling continuity of care, and quality data.

Governance Board

The Governance Board has the authority to give direction and provide strategic governance for interRAI from a clinical, operational, and consumer perspective.

Management team

interRAI Services is the national provider of services to support interRAI and is a business group within the Central Region’s Technical Advisory Service (TAS) – a health shared services agency.

Timeline

Since 2002, interRAI has grown to be the primary assessment tool in aged residential care and home care in New Zealand.

Publications

interRAI New Zealand produces a range of publications and data reports.