Clinical Quality Improvement through a Pre-enrollment Group for Active-duty Service Members in an Intensive...

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Services Research
• Clinical Psychology
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Delays in mental health care worsen symptoms and reduce treatment effectiveness.
• Pre-enrollment care is recommended for intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) but lacks clear structure and outcome data.
• This study investigates the impact of a pre-enrollment group on access and outcomes in a military IOP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a pre-enrollment group on access to care.
• To assess the effect of pre-enrollment care on clinical outcomes in an IOP setting.
• To examine how pre-enrollment care influences anxiety and depression symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective Quality Improvement (QI) project analyzing IOP participant data from 2023.
• Comparison of patients who received pre-enrollment group care versus those who did not.
• Repeated-measures analysis of variance used to compare outcomes before and after treatment.

Main Results:

• Patients in the pre-enrollment group showed greater improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms.
• Specific diagnostic groups experienced different benefits: trauma diagnoses were protected, adjustment disorders showed significant symptom decrease.
• Reduced delay to care was associated with better outcomes, and therapeutic alliance positively impacted treatment response.

Conclusions:

• Engagement in pre-enrollment care effectively reduces treatment delays and enhances behavioral health outcomes.
• Formalizing pre-enrollment programming should be a standard component of IOPs.
• Pre-enrollment care offers a structured approach to support patients awaiting intensive treatment.