Diana Velikonja and Christine Brum
In the current study a resource utilization tool designed to assess the cognitive, behavioral and psychiatric
consequences of brain injury, the SIRUS was compared to the FIM, which is commonly used resource utilization tool
with established reliability and validity. Scores for brain injured patients were compared on both instruments as well
as assessment of the psychometric properties of the SIRUS. The results demonstrated the SIRUS to be a reliable
and valid tool for symptom assessment and evaluation in an inpatient ABI (traumatic and non-traumatic) population.
SIRUS scores discriminate between ABI severity demonstrating non-traumatic brain injuries to be associated with
poorer long term outcomes during inpatient rehabilitation. The findings would show the SIRUS to be designed for use
in the ABI population and is shown to be a quick and easily administered assessment tool with established reliability
and validity that can accurately determine injury severity and the resource requirements of brain injured patients. The
advantage of SIRUS over other resource utilization tools is that it uniquely accounts for the cognitive, behavioral and
psychiatric issues related to brain injury which is not typically accounted for in other related instruments.
