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Outcomes / Assessment
Tools
NOTE:
If there is a link contained within the description of a
resource, you may click on it to download or purchase the
item from the website. However, if you are unable to
download any of the resources, a hard copy of the item
either is available for copy or loan.
State of Ohio Outcomes Website
Ohio Department of Mental Health
October 2003
The front page of the state of Ohio’s outcomes website. A
vast array of resources is available on this site, some of
the more interesting are noted below.
ü
System at a Glance
ü
Vital Signs
– the vision statement and grounding document for the Consumer
outcomes system
ü
Instruments
– the instruments used to evaluate patients
ü
Outcomes System Quality Improvement Group
–
A brief history is included that will be helpful, and the
"Special Report" that is embedded may be of interest. The
training and technology chapters maybe the most valuable
parts of this.
There are many various pages to look at on this site. All
of this stuff except the Ohio Scales is public domain. Dr.
Ogles charges each agency a one time nominal fee to use the
Ohio Scales.
Assessment of Children: Issues and Instruments
Stephen Soldz
Virginia Mulkern
Rutgers Center
for State Health Policy
2004
The Real Choice projects involve finding alternative
treatment placements for children with SED currently in or
at risk of entering residential treatment programs. The
success of such projects requires that children be correctly
assigned to the appropriate level of care. One set of tools
that can aid this assignment is standardized assessment
instruments.
Use of a standardized instrument has several advantages over
traditional clinical assessment. First, utilization of a
standardized instrument helps ensure that the full range of
appropriate information is acquired and applied to the
treatment assignment process. In contrast, clinicians
working without standardized instruments tend to develop
idiosyncratic rules of thumb that may or may not be valid
and are based on particular choices of potential
information.
Second, standardized instruments allow the development of
norms and the comparison of individual cases to those norms.
Many such instruments come with population norms, but states
may want to develop their own norms, based on the treatment
population in that state. Collecting data using standardized
instruments facilitates this process.
Third, in many cases, use of standardized assessment
instruments can easily be expanded to become a tracking or
outcomes monitoring system, providing providers and the
state with data on clinical outcomes of treated children.
Standardized data collection is extremely useful in a
quality improvement process. Data on children who are not
successful in their assigned placement can be examined by a
Quality Assurance team. This examination can, over time,
lead to improvements in the assignment process and to the
identification of exceptions to general rules.
Further, use of standardized assessments may facilitate the
identification of providers providing care better or worse
than average. Such identification permits learning from
exceptionally successful providers and the provision of
technical assistance to providers having difficulties.
For more information
Dawn
Zekis
DHS Director of Policy and Planning - DHS Lead Staff
Dawn.Zekis@arkansas.gov,
501-683-0173
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