title: An inexpensive hospital-based program for outcome evaluation.
abstract: A relatively low-cost outcome evaluation program was developed for a 147-bed psychiatric hospital with a variety of inpatient programs and extensive outpatient and partial hospital facilities. The evaluation staff consists of the research director, a senior research assistant, and a secretary. Much of the program's data comes from documents completed by clinical staff, which are then scanned by an optical mark-reading scanner. The data are automatically entered into a data base and analyzed using PC-based software, SPSS for Windows. Data are used to produce in-house reports that are distributed to clinical programs and the hospital's quality assurance committee. This in-house system can be tailored to an individual hospital's needs and is a less expensive alternative to evaluation by an external contractor.
authors.affiliation: Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131.
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Waxman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003191:Comprehensive Health Care / Q000191:economics; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D016304:Hospitals, Private / Q000191:economics; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000191:economics*; D015143:Philadelphia