Taking vital signs and obtaining simple clinical measures provide valuable information about your patients that in many cases are important to evaluating and managing care appropriately. Many of these measures also can be important in screening for undiagnosed problems or identifying risk. If you don't take these measures, significant information is lost.

Behavioral health is another patient screening that should be considered and integrated into a patient or client's care. Behavior health not only impacts individuals' overall well-being and quality of life, it affects how well or poorly they may respond to physical therapist treatment.

Here are a few popular tools:

- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Assessing Body Mass

- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: BMI Calculator