Riding a Trojan horse: computerized psychiatric treatment planning using managed care principles

Efforts to curtail health care costs have triggered new emphasis on resource management and accountability, entailing explicit documentation of the rationale for treatment and the resulting outcome of care. This article discusses the development of a computerized psychiatric treatment planning database that embodies principles and language of managed care, including specific admission criteria, severity ratings, and time frames for completion of interventions. The program is designed to balance goals of clinical utility, usefulness of the database as a tool for utilization review, quality improvement, and health services research, while providing an interface that is acceptable to clinicians.