[When should inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric treatment be terminated?]

As up to now no thorough empirical investigation of the length of stay during inpatient treatment exists, the criteria for the decision to terminate inpatient treatment were studied.

The opinions of experts in child psychiatry were collected by means of a three-part questionnaire that included a general section together with questions concerning the respective profession group of each expert, a structured section, and a section with open questions. 200 questionnaires were mailed to members of different professional groups at all hospitals for child and adolescent psychiatry in Lower Saxony and Bremen. 112 questionnaires were returned. Data were evaluated descriptively and by means of analyses of variance to determine whether the assessment patterns differ among the various groups.

Complex criteria were found by attributing answers to both the structural and the open questions, which included patient-related aspects (particularly the course of symptoms and the child's/adolescent's development of competence), conditions in the family, administrative influences (aftercare and post-discharge placement), problems in the therapeutic setting, aspects of group dynamics between patients and staff, as well as problems involving motivation and compliance. The decision patterns in the professional groups did not differ.

To reduce the length of inpatient treatment to criteria in accordance with DRGs would be to overlook essential professional aspects of a qualified decision process and thus constitute a misleading strategy with regard to effectiveness and efficiency. The use of the criteria found here as components of a quality management process might be a better way to achieve this goal.