title: A four part outcome measurement system.
abstract: It is suggested that health care outcome measurement systems can be usefully conceptualized in terms of four components. This approach is discussed and illustrated with references to PsychSentinel, a system for measuring psychiatric outcomes. The four components are generic in the sense that they could be used to guide the development of a system for measuring outcomes for any medical specialty. The development of the components are sequential and interdependent. For each component developmental issues and guiding principles are presented. The four components are; a patient classification system, a measure of clinical change (the outcome), a risk-adjustment methodology, and one or more sets of reference norms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Med., University of Connecticut Medical School, Farmington 06030-1910, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mark
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D010361:Patients / Q000145:classification*; D012016:Reference Values; D020379:Risk Adjustment; D016896:Treatment Outcome