Unit-based clinical and organizational indicators for residential treatment

A psychiatric residential treatment center has developed a system for monitoring and evaluating the quality of care provided. Administrators of the nine residential treatment units of the Devereux Foundation's Edward L. French Center use a standard form to report on a number of uniform clinical and organizational indicators. The data are evaluated monthly by the utilization review committee, quarterly by the quality assurance committee, and semiannually and annually by other administrators, committees, and the foundation's board of trustees. This process has been an effective mechanism for identifying trends and patterns in client care, for improving client care, and for providing clues to relationships among organizational problems.