[Quality assurance of therapeutic plans]

The purpose of this study is to examine how an adult psychiatric department carries out its statutory psychiatric treatment plans. The case records of 95 patients were examined after one month in hospital in order to show how the psychiatric treatment plan had been implemented. One-third of the patients were discharged within the first week, and did thus not require a treatment plan. One-third of the patients did not have a structured treatment plan. The main part of these patients had been rehospitalised as part of an ongoing treatment, and a treatment plan had been started earlier on. The purpose of the treatment plan is to assure the quality of the psychiatric treatment, and to create a framework which could be used in dialogue with the patients. It is concluded that the treatment plan does not accomplish the latter.