Outcomes Research

When the first J.D. Power surveys of car quality came out, the leaders of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler all wasted many years questioning the research methodology and pooh-poohing its findings.  As Vista releases the first independent addiction treatment outcomes research in decades, we can’t afford the same kind of hubris.  When addiction treatment fails, people die

Over the last 2½ years, Vista has attempted to contact more than 2,000 addiction treatment patients to learn how they’re doing post-treatment.  As we’ve grown, we’ve learned that several factors have a strong impact on our ability to connect with the patients.

As we analyzed treatment completion data for Vista’s first Outcomes Summit last week, we were surprised by the wide range of treatment completion rates among our clients.  Among short-term residential treatment programs, for example, the percentage of patients who successfully completed treatment ranged between 43% and 97%.

Now that many state licensing organizations have joined the Joint Commission in requiring treatment programs to use patient-reported feedback to inform clinical care, centers are exploring a variety of different options.  Should you consider building your own?

Because behavioral health care is so far behind other areas of health care in using data to measure treatment effectiveness, excellent treatment programs have no way to differentiate themselves from those with mediocre outcomes.  It is time for this to change.

You are undoubtedly well aware how useful it would be to measure the effectiveness of the treatment your center is providing.  Nonetheless, you’re probably not doing so.  As we prepare to welcome in a new year, isn’t it time to take your program to the next level?

The problem that effective addiction treatment programs have is that without data there’s no way for prospective patients or payers to know how good they are. And this lack of data has life-and-death repercussions. 

As the brave new world of outcomes measurements comes to substance abuse treatment, one of the most important things is to agree on a simple, easy-to-understand definition of success.