Developing a quality of care index for outpatient methadone treatment programmes.
This article describes the development and evaluation of a psychometric instrument for assessing quality of care in outpatient methadone substitution therapy (MST) programmes. The instrument, termed the Quality of Care Index-1 (QCI-1), is a seven-item scale evaluated in two studies. Its psychometric properties are consistently acceptable across both studies. The QCI-1 reveals three distinct quality criteria relevant to the condition of the patients in methadone treatment. These are drug use hygiene, sharing of injecting equipment and partner's drug use status.
Oyefeso
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Department of Psychiatry of Addictive Behaviour, St George's Hospital Medical School, London, UK.
Clancy
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Ghodse
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D009294:Narcotics / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000592:standards; D016730:Program Development; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006113:United Kingdom
D009294:Narcotics; D008691:Methadone