Assessing the effectiveness of mental health care in routine clinical practice. Characteristics, development, and uses of patient outcomes modules.
The health care delivery system faces continually increasing pressure to be accountable for the historically unparalleled amount of resources it utilizes. This article discusses one set of recently developed tools known as outcomes modules that are used to assess how treatment affects outcomes in patients with a given disorder. These tools currently are being used to inform administrative decisions about how to improve the quality of care, and can potentially influence decisions by patients, providers, and payers of care as well. The critical components of outcomes modules, as well as their administration and applications are described, using modules for psychiatric conditions as examples.
Smith
G R
GR
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock 72204, USA.
Rost
K M
KM
Fischer
E P
EP
Burnam
M A
MA
Burns
B J
BJ
D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D016730:Program Development; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity