To be eligible for hospice beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s disease must have a FAST Scale of greater than or equal to 7 FAST Scale Items: Stage 1: No difficulty, either subjectively or objectively Stage 2: Complains of forgetting location of objects; subjective work difficulties Stage 3: Decreased job functioning evident to coworkers; difficulty in traveling to new locations Stage 4: Decreased ability to perform complex tasks (e.g., planning dinner for guests, handling finances) Stage 5: Requires assistance in choosing proper clothing Stage 6: Decreased ability to dress, bathe, and toilet independently; Sub-stage 6a: Difficulty putting clothing on properly Sub-stage 6b: Unable to bathe properly; may develop fear of bathing Sub-stage 6c: Inability to handle mechanics of toileting (i.e., forgets to flush, does not wipe properly) Sub-stage 6d: Urinary incontinence Sub-stage 6e: Fecal incontinence Stage 7: Loss of speech, locomotion, and consciousness: Sub-stage 7a: Ability to speak limited (1 to 5 words a day) Sub-stage 7b: All intelligible vocabulary lost Sub-stage 7c: Non-ambulatory Sub-stage 7d: Unable to sit up independently Sub-stage 7e: Unable to smile Sub-stage 7f: Unable to hold head up Documentation of specific secondary conditions (i.e. Pressure Ulcers, UTI, Dysphagia, Aspiration Pneumonia) related to Alzheimer’s Disease will support eligibility for hospice care. #FAST #Stage #Score #Alzheimers #Dementia #Functional #Assessment #Staging #Test #Hospice #Diagnosis #Geriatrics #Palliative
