Monitoring patient improvement and treatment outcomes in managed behavioral health.

This study examined the use of outcome reports sent to clinicians by a managed behavioral healthcare organization to monitor patient progress and its relation to treatment outcome. Results showed that clinicians who reported using outcome information had patients who also reported greater improvement at 6 months from baseline. Improvement per session was greatest among patients whose clinicians reported reading the outcome report and using outcome measures in their clinical practice. Using baseline and ongoing measures to assess patient improvement can provide clinicians with feedback during treatment, which may lead to better clinical outcomes and enable quality management systems in managed care to flag high-risk cases and identify failure of adequate improvement.

The acceptability and effectiveness of patient-reported assessments and feedback in a managed behavioral healthcare setting.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether providing clinicians with the results of a patient-reported mental health assessment would have a significant impact on patients' mental health outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: The study used a portion of the SCL-90 (Symptom Checklist-90) to track the perceived mental health of 1374 patients in a managed behavioral healthcare system over 6 weeks. METHODS: Participants were randomized into a feedback group whose clinicians received clinical feedback reports at intake and at 6 weeks, and a control group whose clinicians received no report. RESULTS: Patients in the feedback group achieved statistically significant improvement in clinical status relative to controls. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the study suggests that patient-reported mental health assessments have the potential both to become acceptable to clinicians and to improve the effectiveness of clinical care.