Comparison of outcomes of acute care in short-term residential treatment and psychiatric hospital settings.
OBJECTIVE
The study compared the demographic and diagnostic characteristics of clients and the outcomes of treatment in five short-term acute residential treatment programs and two acute hospital-based psychiatric programs.


METHODS
A total of 368 clients in the short-term acute residential treatment programs and 186 clients in the psychiatric hospital programs participated in an observational study. The study used a repeated-measures design and assessed participants on multiple standardized measures of symptoms and functioning at admission, discharge, and four-month follow-up. Comparisons between the two groups were conducted separately by diagnostic category. Measures included the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale-32, the Medical Outcomes Short-Form-36, and the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8.


RESULTS
The two types of programs admit persons with similar levels of acute distress who have comparable levels of improvement at discharge and an equivalent degree of short-term stability of treatment gains. Costs of treatment episodes were considerably lower for the short-term residential programs, and client satisfaction with the two types of programs was comparable.


CONCLUSIONS
Short-term acute residential treatment is a less costly yet similarly effective alternative to psychiatric hospitalization for many voluntary adult patients.
Hawthorne
W B
WB
Community Research Foundation, San Diego, California 92108, USA. hobie@cts.com
Green
E E
EE
Lohr
J B
JB
Hough
R
R
Smith
P G
PG
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010359:Patient Readmission; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012112:Residential Facilities; D012720:Severity of Illness Index