Patient Feedback: A Performance Improvement Study in Outpatient Addiction Treatment
Robert Forman, Ph.D. Lead Investigator Treatment Research Institute University of Pennsylvania 600 Public Ledger Building 150 South Independence Mall West Philadelphia, PA 19106-3575 bforman@tresearch.org

Although accrediting organizations, funding sources, and other agencies require community treatment providers to monitor performance, there are no studies showing that this is an effective practice or that it helps addiction treatment patients, clinicians, or managers. This study tests whether one such strategy, feeding back performance data to clinic staff, will improve patient attendance and abstinence. Ratings by patients of their group counseling experience, plus information on patient attendance and retention, will be reported to clinicians and program managers twice a month. Clinicians will receive reports for their caseload; managers will receive clinic-wide reports. Every month managers and clinicians will discuss the clinic-wide reports, identify opportunities for improvement, and make plans to increase the clinic-wide ratings. This study also measures the impact of the system on manager/clinician relations, staff job satisfaction, and whether clinicians and managers will continue to use the system after the study ends.

Patient Feedback Web Site
At the Patient Feedback web site, which is now open to the public, you can find news about the protocol, PDF versions of the manuals and questionnaires used by the researchers and CTPs, and information about patient feedback in general. Check it out: http://www.patient-feedback.org (this website is currently unavailable, August 2010).

Primary Findings: The project demonstrated that the implementation of a semiautomatic performance improvement system directed at clinicians in addiction treatment facilities was generally feasible from both a research and a clinical perspective. The four participating clinics continued to use the system after the intervention phase, suggesting that implementation was sustainable. While the typical clinician accessed feedback reports only 2.3 times (out of a maximum of 8) over the course of the study, all clinicians participated in team meetings and were potential beneficiaries of suggestions for performance improvement and action steps that arose out of these meetings. In general, average alliance, treatment satisfaction, and drug/alcohol use outcomes were favorable across all assessments. Source: Forman R, et al. A feasibility study of a web-based performance improvement system for substance abuse treatment providers. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 2007;33:363-371. [get article]

LATEST PUBLICATIONS AND DATA

	Find publications in the Library about Protocol CTN-0016
	Researchers: Data from this protocol is freely available from the CTN Data Share website.