Usefulness of Symptom Feedback to Providers in an Integrated Primary Care-Mental Health Care Clinic

Measurement-based care has been endorsed but not embraced in mental health settings. There is currently little guidance regarding the best methods to implement measurement-based care.

A survey of mental health providers was conducted before (N=15) and after (N=17) the implementation of a patient self-report symptom measurement system.

At baseline, respondents rarely used the patient self-assessment information (mean±SD=1.8±1.8); they reported the patient data to be marginally useful (4.1±1.9), and only slightly recommended the use of patient assessments (4.3±2.0). Possible scores ranged from 1 to 7, with higher scores indicating more positivity. At follow-up, respondents almost always used the information in the assessments (6.3±1.7), found the patient report data very useful (6.4±.8), and highly recommended continued use of patient surveys in the integrated clinic (6.6±.5).

Providers' lack of enthusiasm about integration of routine data collection and reporting of patient symptoms may be overcome by simply exposing providers to this process. (Psychiatric Services 63:91–93, 2012)