title: An exploration of the ability of routine outcome measurement to represent clinically meaningful information regarding individual consumers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Evidence that feedback on outcome measures can improve consumer outcomes is building but clinician engagement remains inconsistent. Clinicians can interpret and utilize familiar measures but have difficulty in relating to routine outcome measures like the Health of the Nation Outcomes Scales (HoNOS). This paper aims to explore and illustrate how these measures can represent clinically meaningful information regarding individual consumers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Exploration of the aspects of individual clinical states and scenarios that can be represented using the HoNOS and Kessler-10 (K-10) will be used to illustrate their utility in clinical practice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Routine outcome measures have the capacity to represent aspects of consumer symptoms, individual functioning and the need for support relevant to clinical care. These measures may be considered using pattern recognition and reflective practice to answer the following questions. Have we adequately assessed the consumer? Is there agreement between the consumer and clinician? Has anything changed?
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While it may be difficult to relate to the total scores on outcome measures, information from within such measures, individual items and subscales can be presented in a manner that is clinically meaningful. Where clinicians are familiar with the measures, this ability is already being used. The challenge is to make it 'routine'.
authors.affiliation: University of NSW, Kensington, NSW, Australia. roderick.mcKay@sswahs.nsw.gov.au
authors.forename: Rod
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McKay
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Coombs
mesh_terms: D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D016896:Treatment Outcome