Daniel Chapters

Introduction/Problem

The readmission rates and attendance in an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) indicate a need for improvement in treatment methods. The Collaborative Care Model (CCM) is an evidence-based practice improvement which can improve psychiatric care resource use by collaborating with outside providers and centering and involving patients in the creation of treatment planning. The CCM was applied to the current IOP treatment protocol utilizing a quality improvement initiative with the goals of assessing patient outcomes in readmission rates, attendance, and satisfaction scores.

Methods

Data were collected for pre-intervention and post-intervention groups on attendance, re-admission rates and patient satisfaction surveys. Checklists were created to ensure CCM principles were achieved for all participants. Data were collected into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (v.29).

Findings

Days of attendance between groups were significantly increased (t (89.561) = 2.393, p=0.019) in the post-intervention group with a mean difference of 9.926 days (95% CI: 18.166, 1.686). Cohen’s d showed a moderate effect size. Readmission rates decreased from 19.6% to 10% for the pre- versus the post-intervention group; while clinically significantly, this change was not statistically significant. Patient satisfaction survey results showed a statistically significant improvement in the post-intervention groups with p = 0.001 using Mann-Whitney U tests for independent groups for each question in the 14-question survey.

Practice Implications

Implementation of the CCM improved patient outcomes in both adherence to treatment and attendance in the program, and incidence of readmission dropped by almost 50% following the intervention. Patient satisfaction in the program improved significantly.

Dissemination: Accepted for Presentation at ISPN.