Quality assurance of psychiatric day hospital treatment. II. Ward level

Abstract

The article describes a quality assurance system for psychotherapeutic day units. The system was developed through a collaboration between four day units at different hospitals in Norway and the University Institute at the Department for Psychiatry, Ullevål Hospital, Oslo. The system consists of a series of tests, schemes, and procedures that are processed with a software program. The functionality of the system is shown by an activity report (1995) from a day unit for patients with personality disorders. The report focuses on service demands, waiting list, patient characteristics, completion rate, acting out and complications, treatment results, client satisfaction, treatment costs, post-discharge treatment, and the status at the 1-year follow-up. It is concluded that the system is highly useful for the staff, the ward leadership, the hospital leadership, and for politicians and health care planners.