Bridget McClure, MA (New York University School of Medicine, NY Node), Agatha Kulaga, MSW (New York University School of Medicine, NY Node), John Rotrosen, MD (New York University School of Medicine, NY Node), Paul Crits-Christoph, PhD (University of Pennsylvania, DV Node), Sarah Ring-Kurtz, MS (University of Pennsylvania, DV Node), Matt Worley (University of Pennsylvania, DV Node), Robert F. Forman, PhD (University of Pennsylvania, DV Node).

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Quality Improvement (QI) plays a significant role in accreditation in the healthcare industry, yet there is little research published on the effectiveness of QI in addictions treatment. In 2003, as part of NIDA's National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network, a pilot study was launched to test the feasibility of a QI system, Patient Feedback (PF) (protocol CTN-0016, "Patient Feedback: A Performance Improvement Study in Outpatient Addiction Treatment"). The study was conducted at six sites nationwide, with the results establishing the feasibility and acceptability of the PF system at addiction treatment facilities. In 2006, a randomized clinical trial testing the effectiveness of the PF system was initiated and is now being conducted at 35 adult outpatient substance abuse clinics in the New York City and Philadelphia areas. On a weekly basis, patients complete brief, anonymous surveys over a 12 week intervention to rate the quality of therapeutic alliance and treatment satisfaction in their drug counseling group sessions, and report weekly drug and alcohol use, and attendance to group sessions. The surveys are faxed to a data management unit and clinicians obtain real-time feedback of patient ratings through a password protected website. The supervisor and clinicians meet monthly to discuss the feedback and develop methods of enhancing patient ratings in the group sessions. Clinics are randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: experimental and delayed (control). Both conditions will have the opportunity to participate in a Sustainability Phase of the study consisting of 52-weeks of continued use of the PF system after completing the 12 week intervention. It is proposed that employment of the PF system will improve patient rates of therapeutic alliance, treatment satisfaction, attendance, and abstinence from drugs and alcohol, particularly among patients who are new to treatment. (Poster, PDF, English, 2007)

Keywords: Community health services | CTN outcomes | CTP training | Patient feedback system | Quality improvement (QI) | Retention | Therapeutic alliance | College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) annual meeting, 2007

Document No: 214

Submitted by Bridget McClure, Research Coordinator, NY Node, 7/16/2007.