title: [Evaluating the activity of the Italian Mental Health Services inpatient and residential facilities: the PRISM (Process Indicator System for Mental health) indicators].
abstract: This article describes the activities of a project aimed at developing a system of process and process/outcome indicators suitable to monitor over time the quality of psychiatric care of Italian inpatient and residential psychiatric facilities. This system, named PRISM (Process Indicator System for Mental health), was developed by means of a standardized evaluation made by a panel of experts and a consecutive pilot study in 17 inpatient and 13 residential psychiatric facilities.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 28 indicators were selected from a set of 251 candidate indicators developed by the most relevant and qualified Italian and international authorities. These indicators are derived by data from medical records and information about characteristics of facilities, and they cover processes of care, operational equipment of facilities, staff training and working, relationships with external agencies, and sentinel events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The procedure followed for the development of the indicator system was reliable and innovative. The data collected from the pilot study suggested a favourable benefit-cost ratio between the workload associated with regular use of the indicators into the context of daily clinical activities and the advantages related to the information gathered through regular use of the indicators. CONCLUSIONS.:The PRISM system provides additional information about the healthcare processes with respect to the information gathered via routine information systems, and it might prove useful for both continuous quality improvement programs and health services research.
authors: Angelo
authors: A
authors: Picardi
authors: Emanuele
authors: E
authors: Tarolla
authors: Giovanni
authors: G
authors: de Girolamo
authors: Antonella
authors: A
authors: Gigantesco
authors: Giovanni
authors: G
authors: Neri
authors: Elisabetta
authors: E
authors: Rossi
authors: Massimo
authors: M
authors: Biondi
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007558:Italy; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016730:Program Development; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012112:Residential Facilities / Q000592:standards*