[Standardized documentation procedure as a basis for improvement of process quality of treatment in psychiatric...

A standardized documentation system is presented for detailed description and analysis of treatment procedure for psychiatric inpatients. In the first step of a pilot study limited to patients with depressive syndromes at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Mainz, for each subject the clinical status was assessed weekly using psychopathological ratings and depicted in its temporal course along with therapeutic activities. Visualization of the treatment process turned out to be useful for everyday work by supporting the application of practice guidelines for clinical decisions. Beyond optimization of the individual treatment process, aggregation of the data also allows global assessment of treatment processes in the clinic. Thus, in addition to established basic documentation, the presented documentation procedure allows the development of a powerful quality management system in psychiatric clinics, due to its process orientation. Moreover, in psychiatric care research, it is an adequate basis for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of treatment procedures.