The Quadriplegia Index of Function (QIF) was originally developed by the authors in 1980 because the popular Barthel Index was deemed too insensitive to document the small but significant functional gains made by quadriplegics (tetraplegics) during medical rehabilitation. The QIF has now been tested on a group of 30 complete quadriplegic patients at admission to and discharge from inpatient medical rehabilitation. Resultant scores were compared to those simultaneously obtained by the Barthel Index and the Kenny Self-Care Evaluation. The QIF was found to be more sensitive (46 per cent improvement as opposed to 30 per cent by the Kenny Self Care Evaluation and 20 per cent by the Barthel Index). The QIF was also tested for reliability. Ratings by three different nurses, working independently, were found to be significantly positively correlated for all sub-scores (p less than .001). We conclude that the QIF provides a useful option in choosing a functional assessment instrument for use with quadriplegic patients.