[From monitoring to improvement: a data-driven learning network in outpatient mental health care]

The quality of Dutch mental healthcare is under pressure due to staff shortages and an increasing demand for care. To improve the quality of care, four outpatient mental healthcare institutions formed a learning network in 2022 for anxiety, mood and trauma en stressor related disorders. Within this network, data on treatment processes and outcomes were shared and systematically compared. This facilitated the identification of best practices and provided insights to optimize workflows, ensuring treatments are delivered more efficiently and effectively.

An observational cohort study was conducted across four mental healthcare institutions. Data on treatment efficiency and outcomes were collected using electronic patient record (EPR) and routine outcome monitoring (ROM).

Treatment efficiency (treatment duration), and treatment outcomes (symptomatic recovery) were analyzed across all four institutions. While effect sizes (Cohen’s d) varied between institutions, all effects were large to very large. However, substantial practice variation in treatment efficiency was observed, indicating potential areas for improvement.

A learning network appears to make a valuable contribution to improving the quality of outpatient mental healthcare. Collaboration rather than competition has provided important insights into more efficient and effective treatment processes through systematic data comparison. Further improvements in the outpatient treatment of anxiety, mood, and trauma- en stressor-related disorders should primarily focus on enhancing treatment efficiency. Methods such as chat-based contact and routine outcome monitoring during treatment (within-treatment response) may play a key role in this process.