Practical outcome evaluation: patient behavioral health care demonstration project

A cost-effective outcome evaluation project for inpatient psychiatric units was designed and implemented for use in a busy clinical setting. The project consisted of (a) a behavioral health care management team that was committed to developing program evaluation, (b) use of direct care clinical staff, (c) computerized data management, and (d) feedback to clinical staff and administrators. The outcome evaluation project demonstrated that clinical databases and direct care staff can be used to implement a continuous quality loop that has the potential to improve patient care and to increase available data for marketing and program planning decisions.