Quality Indicators: Defining and Measuring Quality in Psychiatric Care for Adults and Children: Report of the APA Task Force on Quality Indicators and Quality Indicators for Children

by American Psychiatric Association

• ISBN13: 9780890422915
• ISBN10: 0890422915
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC PUBLISHING INC

Summary

The past decade has witnessed remarkable growth in the field of quality measurement in health care. Today's patients want to know that the care they receive is safe, effective, and accessible. This compelling monograph combines-for the first time-the reports from two American Psychiatric Association task forces on quality in psychiatric care (March 1999, which focused on adults, and October 2001, which focused on children and adolescents), offering a clinical framework for quality measurement that provides sample indicators of quality for health plans, facilities, and systems of care. Using similar formats and definitions, each task force considered a matrix of priority areas of care, including specific patient populations (e.g., elderly, seriously and persistently mentally ill, developmentally disabled people) and diagnostic categories (e.g., depressive disorder, schizophrenia, substance use disorders). Each then examined important aspects of patient care and constructed a quality framework that included dimensions of access, quality (appropriateness of care), perception of care (satisfaction), outcome, and-for the children's report-prevention. Each task force also considered relevant methodological issues: cultural, linguistic, and ethnic differences; data collection and tracking; confidentiality of data; risk adjustment; use of rating scales and standardized instruments; and designation of standards. Sample recommended goals include For adults:patients with serious and persistent mental illness should have access to newer generations of antipsychotic medications as these become available; patients should achieve a significant reduction in symptom. For children and adolescents: the mental health status of children and adolescents should be assessed annually; children with severe or persistent mental illness whose care involves multiple child-serving systems, caregivers, and service providers should have their care coordinated Sample indicators include For adults: utilization of new antipsychotics for patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia; reduction in frequency of panic attacks in patients with the diagnosis of panic disorder For children and adolescents: high levels of satisfaction of adolescents using mental health services or substance abuse services; reduction in a family's stress level and impact of illness As the initial step in what must be an evolving effort by clinicians to define, measure, report, and improve the care that patients and their families receive, this monograph is essential reading for those who provide and receive care, accredit and regulate care, and purchase and administer clinical services. Purchasers of mental health care want clear, reliable, meaningful, and comparable information on what care is provided and with what results. APA convened these two task forces to lend its professional expertise to that issue, to advise on how to develop clinically based, patient focused quality indicators that use existing and ongoing research and clinical consensus in selecting potential indicators.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Report of the American Psychiatric Association Task Force on Quality Indicators
Executive Summary	5	(4)
Charge and Process	5	(1)
Definitions and Framework	6	(1)
Recommendations and Selected Indicators	7	(1)
Other APA Efforts	7	(1)
Report Use and Dissemination	7	(2)
Report of the Task Force on Quality Indicators	9	(38)
General Context	9	(2)
APA Context	11	(1)
Task Force Approach	12	(4)
Overall Quality Framework From a Clinical Perspective	16	(1)
Recommendations/Goals and Sample Quality Indicators for Selected Areas of Focused Quality Assessment and Improvement	17	(3)
Workbook of Quality Indicators	20	(24)
Next Steps	44	(3)
References	47	(4)
Acronyms and Abbreviations	51	(2)
Index of Quality Indicators by Topic	53	(8)
Report of the American Psychiatric Association Task Force on Quality Indicators for Children
Executive Summary	61	(6)
Charge and Process	61	(1)
Definitions	62	(1)
Quality Framework	63	(1)
Workbook of Quality Indicators	64	(1)
Other APA Efforts	64	(1)
Report Dissemination	64	(1)
How to Use This Report	65	(2)
Report of the Task Force on Quality Indicators for Children	67	(76)
General Context	67	(3)
APA Context	70	(1)
Task Force Approach	71	(5)
Overall Quality Framework	76	(1)
Workbook of Quality Indicators	77	(64)
Next Steps	141	(2)
References	143	(12)
Acronyms and Abbreviations	155	(2)
Glossary of Terms and Definitions	157	(8)
Index of Quality Indicators by Topic	165	(6)
Index of Surveys, Rating Scales, and Instruments	171	(2)
Index to Report of the APA Task Force on Quality Indicators	173	(10)
Index to Report of the APA Task Force on Quality Indicators for Children	183