Shared Reflection to Maximize Resources and Minimize Costs: The Reflecting Team Applied to a Hospital Environment

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Healthcare Management
• Health Economics

Background:

• Severe mental illness leads to frequent hospitalizations and high public resource utilization.
• Patients and families with chronic conditions often face stagnant and ineffective treatment systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the Reflecting Team (RT) intervention.
• To evaluate the impact of RT on psychiatric inpatients in a public hospital setting.

Main Methods:

• Conducted six Reflecting Team (RT) sessions.
• Retrospectively collected clinical data for six months pre- and post-intervention.
• Analyzed hospital admissions and acute psychiatric unit stay duration.

Main Results:

• Significant reductions observed in the number of hospital admissions.
• A notable decrease in total time spent in the psychiatric acute unit.
• Statistically significant reductions in all computed costs associated with treatment.

Conclusions:

• Reflecting Team (RT) intervention demonstrates feasibility and cost-effectiveness.
• RT shows promise as a strategy to improve treatment outcomes for chronic psychiatric conditions.
• This approach can help patients and families overcome treatment stagnation in public healthcare systems.