Tremendous costs associated with severe mental illness warrant the need for improved inpatient care. Research supports utilizing individual patient problems, or target complaints (TCs), as effective in planning and evaluating inpatient care. However, practical issues have often limited their use. Computerized interviews address these limitations by reducing clinician time and standardizing TCs. Research supports the Computerized Assessment System for Psychotherapy Evaluation and Research (CASPER) as an efficient and valid measure of patient TCs. This between-subjects study will evaluate whether supplying CASPER TCs to doctors and staff will improve treatment delivery and outcome. Conditions will vary by CASPER TCs: experimental condition patients will have their TCs supplied to doctors and staff whereas control group patients will not. Both conditions will include treatment delivery evaluations and pre- and posttreatment assessments. Results will help determine whether: 1) patients enter information in CASPER unknown to doctors that is important for treatment planning; 2) providing staff with patient TCs will improve treatment comprehensiveness; and 3) providing TCs to staff will predict treatment outcome as evaluated by length of stay and improved symptom ratings. Because the CASPER TCs may improve treatment, results could guide development of more effective and cost-efficient inpatient care.
| Kinnaman, Joanna E Strong; Farrell, Albert D; Bisconer, Sarah W (2006) Evaluation of the Computerized Assessment System for Psychotherapy Evaluation and Research (CASPER) as a measure of treatment effectiveness with psychiatric inpatients. Assessment 13:154-67 |
