Findings from a study of applicants to a long-term care facility suggested the possibility of developing a screening instrument concerning need for admission that might be administered prior to calling on the services of highly trained specialists. Such an instrument can be used as an aid to the professional and permit a more efficient allocation of his time. Using team judgments of need for admission as the criterion, data concerning 48 pre-coded items from 123 home interviews were subjected to discriminant function analysis—a statistical device by which responses to interview items might be translated into scores predictive of clinical judgments. Eighty-three cases were used for deriving the scores used for predicting need and 40 cases for testing the instrument. Because of the encouraging results, plans are underway to refine the instrument.